A peek at perspectives......

it's that time again....

2011-02-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

well, it seems that i only write on my blog when i travel...problem is, no internet...no entry....
so i seem to start a trip and never finish....hmmmm...how to change this? tomorrow i leave for italy to meet cynthia
problem solving needed...

Grown...up...?

2010-05-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

OK when was it that my kids grew up??
They are these amazing adults and yet...still my KIDS...

Touring Copenhagen...

2009-08-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

we woke up late...very late...1030am. God bless Leif and Annette, they waited breakfast for us and then we were off to Copenhagen on the train.

we got off the train down near the harbor, just past Copenhagen...saw the Little Mermaid, then the harbor...then the palace where the Queen lives called Amalienborg Palace....a short walk to the Gefion(fountain and a church)...

went to the Nyhavn area(a restaurant and bar walkway along the canal), had beer and a walk...

saw the Stroget area...lots of shopping and on past to the Christiansborg Palace...where the Parliment is.

tons of walking,lots of beer, a short stop at Tivoli Gardens and a few laughs along the way...

yawn...
back to the house for dinner, wine, pictures, coffee, more pictures...

yawn...

Life in Copenhagen....

2009-08-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, we left LA on Monday night, the 10th...hoping to get on the 2145 flight to Newark...didn't make it and decided to try the 2300 flight to Cleveland...luckily, made that and caught the 0745 flight to Newark (on the 11th) from there.

We got in at 1030 and waited around for the flight to Copenhagen. That flight at 1730 filled up really quickly so we went to Brussels at 1802 and landed with 2 hours to spare with a connection to Copenhagen. Landed in Copenhagen at 1100 on the 12th, -exhausted-and looked for Leif (pronounced Life).

He found us and off we went to Roskilde, Denmark.

July at the cabin...

2009-08-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

it was a peaceful 4th of july this year...just the two of us.

different experience but fun just the same.

da girls came in for the annual "trip". SUCH fun! kelly joined the group and so did ronnie...susan and janet came later but fun was had by ALL. karaoke, rain days, pontoon rides, hot dogs at stonekings, and the dancing, eating, party scene at mastersons. lots of fun that was photographed in great detail by dorticus with help contributed by the return campers, karel and arleen. we couldn't do it without you!!!

then came the jet airways crowd..what a hoot!! 18 people from all over who got long great and everyone contributed their expertise in the kitchen and bar and verbal input during the innumerable conversations going on for 4 days...sleeping in the basement "dorm" room with 10 other campers and everyone was a good sport...what a hoot! the lucky ones who got their own room...including the tent outside, still had a "close encounter" cuz of the bathrooms!! good sports, ALL!

and now the decompression period...just us two...

that's fun too

i am so blessed to have such a beautiful life. great surroundings, fabulous friends, incredible travel opportunities...aahhh, life is BEAUTIFUL!!

Travel thinkings...

2009-08-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

i have missed so many entries to my little online journal here. i keep thinking i'll have time later...later becomes now and busy overwhelms.

so here i am pondering why our trip to beijing china never was mentioned, or maybe visiting friends in nashville tennesse. both were memorable trips with lots of fun and notable moments...hhhmmmmm.

living in the moment with no regrets is my current mantra

sometimes living in the moment leads to regrets with a tinge of shoulda, coulda, and woulda...so where did the no regrets go?

take the time to ponder meditate and reflect...i think that will be my new goal

as i sit in the airport in minneapolis, trying to get on a flight to los angeles, i have tons of time to reflect....

then i look at my reflection and wonder...who is that? she's so much older than i remember

sometimes reflections raise questions...hhhmmmmm

time passes all too quickly with no chance of catching up,

it is always racing ahead, just out of reach....

time to be childlike at christmas...open the present...one at a time...enjoy!... play with the box too, and enjoy!!

again??

2009-07-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

july 1st, LAX, trying to get to Minneapolis.

full flights, sit around the airport

strangely reminiscent of of last month...

memories of the last two days...my boy and my girl, both home for a visit...

life is good and i am happy

Just another day in .....the airport!

2009-06-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

well here we are...

standing by to stand by....

waiting for a flight to EWR...that's Newark to you innocents...

here it is june, and there is a weather delay...so, have another cuppa coffee.

once we get there, we get to meet amy's parents, gary and mary...sounds like a movie title...

they seem like lots of fun so fun will be had.

ttfn...

Singapore to Shanghai....Delayed update on South China Sea Trip, or, I can't believe this took me SO long ....

2009-03-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

January 28 2009

Up early this morning and off to IAH aka Houston Intercontinental Airport…wouldn’t that be HIA? These are some of the more weighty questions in LIFE! Anyhoo…

Check in went smoothly and we got great seats!! Business First and we’re off to Narita!

I watched 5 movies...couldn’t sleep. Relatively uneventful flight and a very pleasant 13 hours as Business First is wont to be. Whatever that means…

Our connections to Singapore went smoothly and we were off on United Flt 803. Marty, his usual social self, went up to the cockpit to say hello to the Captain and First Officer. About 5 minutes later, the Captain came back to Coach and invited us to come up and take the last row of First Class. Very sweet since we had another 7 hours of flight time to Singapore. This time I did sleep and got in about 4 hours.

So landing in Singapore at 12:30am on the 30th was actually not so bad and we had an informative ride to the Holiday Inn Atrium with the Mundles. Our cabbie was a talkative fellow! Into bed by 2am and ready to start fresh when we get up!!

Later on the 30th….

Up and about, we walked down the river and back…quite a lot to see. It is clean and actually very cool.

Tonight, the wife of a Jet Airways Captain, Jane Mellor, came to show us around Singapore at night and had dinner with us. Very fun!!

Day One: January 31….

Up and workout, big breakfast then to the ship!! Legend of the Seas, Royal Caribbean!

Marty decided to make it his mission to meet everyone on the ship at least once….that would be a little over 1500 people…and he’s off to a good start.

Relatively easy check in but we were assigned inside cabins…very nice but we were hoping for an upgrade to an outside cabin. We’ll see, since the cruise was such a great deal…I don’t think we can complain…but we can always hope ☺

At 7pm we set sail for Bangkok. Two days at sea…

Day 2: February 1…Day at Sea!

Well my intentions are great and I headed to the gym to workout. As usual, the first few days of the cruise, the gym is VERY crowded in the morning and then it supposedly clears out as the week goes on…we’ll see.

We attended a Thailand “briefing “ from a retired NYU professor, Chuck. Actually, it was quite informative. He did a presentation on Vietnam as well. This would be a great job for Marty…he loves to impart information to everyone…anytime… and he has a wealth of information, although sometimes not as much as he thinks...(just kidding).

I wandered around the boat/ship and got acquainted with everything…it’s a pretty big vessel. And wow! We got upgraded to an outside cabin…had to repack and then unpack again, but, it was worth it. Our cabin was on a lower deck and closer to the bow…very comfy.

Tonight was our first Formal Dinner so everyone got all spiffy and beautimus!!

Day 3: February 2…Bangkok!!

We were supposed to dock at Laem Chabang, but we ended up going further up the river to dock closer to Bangkok.

We got off the Ship early and hired a driver to take us to the city. Bob and Cheryl stayed on the ship so, we had another couple, Fred and Marie from Grand Junction Colorado, join us. They were great fun and really good sports.

First stop was a ride in a canal boat on the Bangkok River. We were in smaller canals and then ventured into the “grand canal”. It reminded me of the Grand Canal in Venice, only not as pretty. Very big and busy with lots of boat traffic. There were boat vendors that paddle by and sell everything... water, beer, doodads and gimmicks.

Interesting mix...check out the satellite dish...

Lunched at a restaurant on the Canal, some of the food looked a little sketchy but it all tasted pretty good and no one got sick. That’s a plus!! Also, the view of a Temple...a famous one, of which I can't remember the name...and lots of long tail boats zooming past...

Then, on to the Grand Palace. Such opulence!! Very beautiful but yikes!!

OH! and there is a dress code! I knew they had one for women...no shorts, no bare arms, etc...but apparently there is a no shorts rule for men as well. So, Marty and Bill "rented" some pants to wear...excuse me but who was wearing them before???

Here is one of the guards that protect you AND you spirit... a two-fer, what a deal!

I kinda like the disco theme of these guys!

One comment here on the state of the bathroom facilities in Bangkok…primitive and smelly…that about covers it. I could go into more descriptions but I fear I would lose you…it was THAT bad.

The Jade Buddha was breathtaking. Equally as breathtaking was the heat!! It had to be over 110 degrees at the palace.

Return to the ship and ate AGAIN! Then we pretty much crashed early…long day.

Day 4: February 3…Pattaya Beach

Worked out, the gym doesn’t seem to be getting less crowded, however, had a leisurely breakfast, read my book….

We took the shuttle bus at noon and had a quick trip! I had a 2 hour massage….hhhmmmm, heaven. Marty had a one hour massage and then went to the internet café and we met as we were running to the last shuttle to get to the ship.

Fun dinner with the group…Robert is our waiter and Minghao Wang is his assistant…what a cutie!

Day 5: February 4….Sihanoukville (Khampon Som), Cambodia

We are in Cambodia’s only deep-water port. It is in the SW corner near Vietnam and only 230 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh.

We got a car and driver and drove across to Kam Pot and then to Kem, which is a beach resort. We went through town after town of poverty and squalor. We sure were blessed to have been born in the US of A.

The people were all friendly and anxious to sell you stuff.

Had lunch in Kem and the went to a Buddist temple and met a lot of kids…very cute but they have fine-tuned the art of begging…hard to resist. But, somehow I managed!

Last stop of the day was Outres Beach where we had a few beers and were surrounded by beach vendors who were about 10 years old. Very cagey little sales people but very cute.

Day 6: February 5…Day at Sea

Stayed in bed and read til 9am…heaven. Worked out, read, relaxed, got some sun by the pool…now this is what I call a vacation!!

Formal night at dinner but it is a terrific group. Marty and Cheryl started to bump heads again…annoying as ever but somehow Marty is unable to let things slide and I get so upset…put a damper on my evening. It is my bad for letting it bother me. The immaturity of the whole event is laughable.

Day 7: February 6…Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City aka HCMC, Vietnam

Up early to catch a view of the Mekong Delta as we headed up river to dock at an industrial container port, which was closer to Saigon. Originally, we were to dock nearer to Vung Tau, which was at the mouth of the Saigon River.

We docked about 0730 and were able to disembark at 0800. We all met and tried to hire a driver to take us to Saigon which was a 2 hour drive. We were successful but it was the most expensive yet.

Good ole Uncle Ho.....

Once in the city, the girls were dropped at the Rex Hotel. The boys continued on with the driver to try to get a glimpse of their old airbase at Than Son Nhut. It is now where the Saigon Airport is and they were not able to get out and walk around to see anything. There was an air museum that was closed and they got to see a few airplanes from the war.

The girls, Cheryl, Penny, Kathy and I went shopping and had a massage and met back at the Rex Hotel for the ride to the ship. Lots of shopping to be had and I did my part.
I’m looking forward to two more days in Vietnam for shopping deals!!

We made it back to the ship with time to spare and all met up on the top deck for the return run down the Mekong River to the South China Sea!

The Boys! Didn't find their old base but celebrating their time together!!

Dinner and back to the rooms to catch up on journaling, reading and pictures. I tried to Skype Paddy but no luck…he was out.

Day 8: February 7…Nha Trang, Vietnam

We docked at anchor in this lovely harbor. There is a cable car/tram that goes across the bay to another island. Apparently, there is some sort of an amusement park over there but it wasn’t something we wanted to do.

When we got off the Tender, we walked around the area near the harbor but then decided to go into the city center. We took a cab and went to the main market. Shopping was OK and Marty got some sandals.

As we were leaving the market, we were surrounded by cyclos and decided to take a ride to the beach. These are persistent drivers and wanted to stay with us but we finally got rid of them and walked along the beach for a while.

But, we were followed by some more cyclos and we relented. They took us to a massage place. One of the weirder experiences I had…I got the feeling my masseuse wanted me to have a “happy ending” massage but I kept saying, noooooooo. A tip of the day…don’t get a massage where they make you pay first…the masseuse barely lets you out of the room, demanding a higher tip than you paid for the massage…weird.

Then, our faithful cyclos drivers were waiting for us to take us back to the ship. We stopped at a market for some beers and off we went. They really worked hard…but we had a blast!

We were surrounded by vendors at the entry to return to the ship!! Had to buy a few more things!! Shucks!

Day 9: February 8….Danang, Vietnam

This is the sight of China Beach and Marble Mountain.

Our cabby took us to Marble Mountain first. Dozens of stores all selling sculptures of all different sizes. Beautiful! The marble originally came from the hills around the town, but now, it is brought in from China…go figure.

During the Vietnam War, called the American War over here, there was a radio tower at the top of Marble Mountain to aid the allied forces and it was defended by the Marines. Semper Fi!

Then on to China Beach where US servicemen had “in country” R&R. It was mostly for Vietnamese troops but also US troops. The TV series China Beach was named after of it. I loved that show!

It was pretty but, as with any beach, time and condos take its toll. There were, however, these cool round boats that some of the locals were using. I have no idea how they were able to steer them out through the surf…using only a paddle, but they did! Very Cool!

Then back to the ship and another great meal. Our dinner was delicious but marred by an immature outburst, reminiscent of a four year old.
Anger, such a useless waste of time…it is kind of like rocking in a rocking chair…it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

I feel like walking out and never looking back. I am so weary of loss of temper and anger bursts. Meaningless and a waste of time! A certain level of maturity is needed…how can one be an adult for over a half a century and never attain that level. How can one have such an amazing capacity to make people smile and make new friends and then completely lose control and be unable to control their temper.

I don’t get it.

Perhaps I never will…

Do I want to wait and see? Perhaps…then again,

sometimes…perhaps not.

The frightening part is, when these temper tantrums occur, I detach and on one level, I don’t care.

On another level, I am embarrassed. Not only for me…but, for those involved. How can they be so childish and immature. So unaware how it affects those around them…not just those involved but all who witness the ridiculous outburst. And that is what it is.

Then again…fuel on the fire…all, I have to say is calm down and WHOOSH!! Flame up!! And, I suppose it did no good to say shut the fuck up!! Go figure.

I, once again will apologize for causing the flame up and never receive an apology for the behavior that preceded it….as I said, maturity and respect.

Day 10: February 9…Sanya , China

Short day in Port but we had fun nonetheless. We went to a Pearl Museum where we learned the difference between “real” pearls, cultured pearls, and fresh water pearls. Also, how to tell if a pearl is real or fake….very interesting. Also found out that cosmetics made with pearls are very good for your skin. Hhhmmmmm! I KNEW I liked those little suckers!!

Day 11: February 10…Hong Kong, China

What an amazing city! The pollution was off the charts. My eyes burned all the time.

We docked in Kowloon right next to the Ferry Station. The shopping and fancy hotels were all only a few blocks away. Dangerous!!

Went to the Penninsula Hotel. Very Schmancy!! Apparently, THE place to be and be seen in Hong Kong. We only stopped in for a viewing…a little too pricey for our pockets, but, worth the viewing!!

Went shopping and tried to find out about a lens for my camera….needed to talk to Paddy before I did anything…got ripped off but learned a costly lesson.

Headed to the Central Bus Terminal and caught a bus to Stanley Market…one more place to boost the Hong Kong economy. Very popular market with the tourist crowd but very cute nonetheless.

Had lunch at a local (tourist) café…lots of ambiance….the napkins were double damask!!NOT! Apparently, napkins are not part of a regular place setting…. Here is what we got when we asked for "serviettes"....

An interesting mix of the old and sparkling new Hong Kong.

An exciting bus ride back to Kowloon and a run to the Intercontinental Hotel. We didn’t want to miss the light show!

We arrived at the Intercontinental Hotel, in the nick of time, to watch the Laser Light Show on the Harbor. Pretty incredible…all the buildings on both sides of the water were involved and lights were flashing and pulsing and generally going wild. Very impressive!!

We dragged our tired butts back to the ship for dinner at the buffet and fell into bed.

Day 12: February 11…Hong Kong

Took the Ferry to Hong Kong Island and then a bus to Aberdeen. In Aberdeen, we took a Harbor Cruise and went to the Floating Restaurant for lunch. It is surrounded by local fishing boats with a smattering of sailboats and larger powerboats. Back in the post Viet Nam days, it was said you could cross the harbor by walking from boat to boat. There were a lot of people living on their boats…still are! The same was said about Hong Kong Harbor…LOTS of little boats!

Back to the ship by 1630 and we departed at 1800. We were all on deck to wave goodbye to Hong Kong and toast our fun times and good fortune!

Day 13: February 12…Xiamen, China

Xiamen has been a seaport critical to China’s trade and political activities since it’s founding 1387 during the Ming Dynasty. It’s name means “Remember the Ming” or some such thing…

Anyhoo…we departed the ship and took the ferry to a little Island across the water that had no cars…their own little Catalina, only smaller and called Piano Island, I think.

We walked around the quaint little streets…got chased down a hill by some locals that didn’t want us in their neighborhood, at least that’s what we surmised from all the chatter and arm waving. I mean hey! Everybody likes us…we’re fun.

We then got turned away from the Piano Museum because we just wanted to take a picture of the building and not pay to go INTO the museum. They were a little crabby about that, I mean REALLY! Mr. Crabbypants!!

We found the tour golf carts and decided to take a ride to the other side of the Island. After we loaded up with beer and got our cameras ready…we were off! Howsomeever, the golf cart girl got cranky when we asked her to stop for a picture, NO!…slow down?? NO!
These people must have low blood sugar or something…SHEESH!!

But there were lovely surprises on the other side…a hike to a fabulous viewing area…a tram to a cool aviary…more beer…just to name a few!

But the “piece de resistance” was that Marty and Bob went to get a haircut while the rest of us had…yes…ANOTHER beer…and other refreshments. Their “stylists” got a little carried away but they came back with both ears and fun stories!! No “happy ending massage” here, but almost...

Back to the ship by 1730 and dinner with the whole gang!!

Day 14: February 13…Day at Sea, last day at sea, sniff….

Well, this is a fit ending to a terrific cruise. Breakfast in the Dining Room with, almost the whole group.

We relaxed, packed, worked out, had a few cocktails, and generally enjoyed the day.

Tonight was our last “formal attire” dining event! As with the end of any cruise, there are extravaganzas galore and everyone rushing to get contact info so we can keep in touch and see each other on various continents at assigned times.

We have plans to go to France, Germany, England and Mexico. We’ll see what pans out, but it sure would be fun!

An amazing show in the Theater was a repeat performance from the first night on board that we missed. So glad we got to see it!

Then, we headed to the bar and pounded down a few…or was it just me?...hhhmmmmm.

Among the guests on board were a group of CAL Flight Attendants, we had a blast with them all. Also, a CAL Captain, Mike Lynch and his wife, Pat and parents, Herb and Ruth.

Day 14: February 15 Shanghai, China

We all met in line at the exit area at 0930. That was a feat in and of itself.

Got three cabs to the Broadway Mansion Hotel. It was only about 6 blocks from The Bund. So we dropped our stuff in the rooms, and took off for the Bund and points unknown.

We walked and saw the sights in questionable weather…as it started to rain, we looked for cabs…not an easy feat…and the girls ended up getting split up from the boys and the rest of the day was a “goat rope”. Marty gave the cabbie an address and Penny gave him a different one and we got dropped at the wrong place. After a few hours of wandering and trying to find them, we went back to the hotel. We found the boys, regrouped, and those who wanted to shop went out again.

We went to the shopping area that Marty found with the Jet Airways Crew and did some serious damage. Yay! Such great deals!

Then after showering and warming up, we went to dinner in the “red light district” and realized, once again, you NEVER order chicken in China.

Day 15: February 16 Shanghai, China

Bob and Cheryl went home today.

Gary, Kathy, Bill, Penny, Marty and I went out to explore the surrounding areas. We took the tram under the river to the other side of the Bund.

Walked to all the sights and went to the top of the newest tallest hot diggity building and took pictures and had coffee.

Unbelievable smog...

Interesting sign for an ATM...very apt...

Then back to the Hotel so Penny and Bill could catch their plane home.

The rest of us headed out to a Canal Town called Tzsingtzsing Tzou, or something. It was very cool and completely void of other tourists.

We walked to the river and looked for a restaurant. We found one. There was no name, no menu and at least no one spoke English. What a kick! We drew pictures on scraps of paper (they too didn’t have napkins) and somehow got our order across. However, trying to order wine was another story. Finally, Gary went down into the kitchen to point at what we wanted.

The room was FREEZING and luckily there was a heater on the wall. Unluckily, all the directions were in Chinese….luckily, the young girl could see my lips turning blue…unluckily, the heater kept shutting off…luckily, we ate fast…unluckily, we couldn’t find the person to get our bill…luckily, someone ran down the block and brought her back. All in all, it was quite an experience.

Our explorations through the town were aided by a young man who kept following us and if we turned the wrong way, would run ahead and jump up and down to make sure we went the right way. Well, that is a little bit of an exaggeration, but he was rather insistent that we go the right way.

Then Gary decided maybe he would do a few odds jobs to pick up a little cash for the trip home...

A good day but the ride back took about 2 hours. Rush hour in Shanghai is a bitch!...a whole new meaning of gridlock.

We didn’t want to miss any shopping so we headed back to Marty’s shopping mall and bought MORE stuff including golf clubs and ski jackets and Tiffany’s jewelry.

By the time we got back to the Hotel we were exhausted!! A trip to the corner store got us a bottle of wine, some noodle soup (just add water) and about a gallon of water.

We went to Tottens room to eat and then back to try and pack all our goodies.

About 11pm we realized we weren’t going to make it fit and called Kathy to see if we could buy her extra bag and pay for one for them since they were staying one more day. She turned over her bag and wouldn’t take money….God bless that girl! We finally fell into bed and were rudely awakened early for our trip to the airport!

Day 16: February 17 Shanghai to Narita to Houston to LA

What a day! But we made it home!! Yay!

Houston, January 27

2009-01-27T20:50:00.000-08:00

We landed here at 1730 and were picked up by good buddy Bob Mundle. Then on to Baragas for a "comfort food" dinner. I love meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Lots of wine preceding dinner with more to follow...i can't complain because it was accompanied with great conversation and warm feelings. I love these guys. Such amazing friends. I only wish they lived closer because I want to share more and want them to be more a part of our lives.

Ah well, such is life. We are blessed with many wonderful people and friends. I AM SO GRATEFUL!!

Tomorrow takes us on a grand adventure. Bob and Cheryl Mundle will join us on our flight to Norita and then to Singapore...should be fun. I'm so looking forward to an amazing trip..

Ciao

Writing...

2009-01-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

i am so envious of people who can write....not just put words on a "paper"...i mean really write.

i have a few favorite blogs i follow and it always amazes me how the writing seems so easy and effortless...train of thought. wow! do they struggle like me? i don't think so because the result is so...so...so fascinating to follow. i can't wait to get to the next line or word, or entry.

i envy that. it is truly a gift. a talent that maybe even they don't realize they have. but how can they not?

hmmm

Back in sunny socal...

2009-01-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

How can you not love it here?? i know there is traffic and too many people, and smog...when you can see it...but yikes! here it is, the 15th of January and 85 degrees and crystal clear blue skies and life is good!!

i am so blessed to be here. the bay is beckoning and i think i will kayak for awhile after i finish my "to do list".

it is good to be "home".

A peek at 2009...

2009-01-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

i am at the cabin and it is beautiful...cold, (-15F) but beautiful. the snow fell last night and there are a few inches trying to hide all the activity from the day before in the yard.

the sun is shining and it looks breathtaking. actually, it is breathtaking... and numbingly... cold. hand numbing, toe numbing and mind numbingly cold. i guess i used to deal with this kind of temperature anomaly when i was MUCH younger. now i am a fair weather princess. or at least fairer weather and i only really appreciate this weather while looking at it from a warm toasty chair in front of a fire.

there is a lil rabbit outside that lives under the neighbors porch and he keeps poking his lil head and body out...is he looking for food? or a predator? he has been around for a few years now and i'm kinda fond of watching his antics..both winter and summer.
note to self...toss out some carrots and lettuce before you leave...

i have a page on facebook...this is new to me. i think Kel and Ryan are a little chagrined but it is kinda fun. today, Marty saw how fun it was and now HE has a page...just one more thing to keep him tied to the computer...now I'M chagrined.

this is january and time for MORE unfulfilled new years resolutions. that part is very depressing. No resolutions for me....

i am writing in my gratitude journal, however. i am so blessed. it is amazing to me how many blessings touch my life on a daily basis. Kelly suggested that i keep a journal and although i've read numerous authors that recommended the same thing, somehow it carried more weight when she mentioned it. so here i am, thankful and happy and starting a new year.

so there are lots of happenings over the next few months and i will give a peek into 2009.

January is Ryan's Bday, skiing at mammoth, visit the cabin, Roger's Bday and on the 31st leave on a cruise from Shanghai to Singapore, stopping at Hong Kong, Cambodia, then three stops in Viet Nam, and then two stops in China before disembarking in Shaghai. i can't wait. 2 weeks.

February is traditionally the womens ski trip and whatever skiing we can fit in...

March, more skiing, Marty's Bday, Lauren Sonneman's wedding, Kel's Bday and more....

April, no plans as of yet but still looking to get together with friends...

May, lots of Bdays and so on...

That's a good beginning and during all those months, i plan to spend as much time as i can with Mom and Roger...Mom is doing ok. her altzeimers is still progressing and some days are better than others but i am so thankful that we found Maria and her posse to be "companions" for mom. it sure helps out Roger and frees him from some of the more grueling daily tasks. he is such a good man and i'm so grateful that he has stuck with Mom through all her downward spiraling. his health is stable an i pray that it remains so....

there are so many things to be grateful for in 2009...peace and blessings to all.

Happy Holidays...let's catch up...

2008-12-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

tis the season...i love christmas.

i love decorating the house and keeping the decorations up til mid-january

i love getting together with family and a fire in the fireplace.

i love turning the lights on the tree when i get up in the morning and not turning them off til i go to bed at night.

i love having everyone together and seeing people i don't see any other time of year.

what i don't love is the hectic pressure we put on ourselves to buy gifts and spend money and wrap everything so that we can rip off the beautiful wrapping in ten seconds time.

this year i did a semi boycott on what i don't like and it was good. less was definitely more and there really was peace on earth...well marina pacifica at least.

i am so blessed.

i have an amazing life.

i live in an incredible place (s).

i have fabulous friends.

i am part of an absolutely fabulous family.

i am so lucky.

i am so blessed!

thank you!!

Visiting friends...

2008-11-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

well off we go to visit Bill and Marti Foster in Lake Arrowhead. friends we haven't spent time with in a long time..well, actually ever...except for the occasional dinner or party. i'm really looking forward to just hanging and chatting and viewing life from a different angle.

then on sunday afternoon, we can see Steve and Karen Snow...good friends from way back in the days of young children, early amway, and Stevie single. different lives actually. our perspective of life as it should be was so different. our kids were young, we were young and we thought we knew what we wanted and where we were going...and had all the time in the world to get there.

well, time has a way of sneaking up and rushing past if you don't keep your eye on it, you can miss so much.

i don't want to miss anything now that i'm older and more appreciative of it...but i still squander moments and let time leak out of my days...

time with friends...

i'm looking forward to it....can't wait, actually....

Later...

2008-11-22T07:40:00.000-08:00

i have been procrastinating a lot lately.

i'll have more time tomorrow...then i'll get it done or make that call or visit mom or work more.

but that open day just seems to elude me...

i guess i'll have to do it today.

just one more cup of coffee while i read this article....then i'll get to it....

haallllooooo...anybody there?

2008-10-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

i feel like have been lost...and i can't find me anywhere.

under the bed, in the back of the closet, next to the bookcase...under the rug?

hmmm, where could i be?

haallooooo...is anybody there?

Family and friends....

2008-07-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

July is always a busy month...this year it is crazy! Camp Noonan!

the family arrives about the 30th of june...well almost the whole family. dave and kate and the kids are in the middle of moving to chicago so this year is not a good time. also, cynthia had to cancel because of work and ryan is in so korea.

but laci brought his boat to wisconsin....yikes, that was a job. they brought one of the wave runners too...more toys for the water. what a blast we had!! a whole week of fun and water and wave running, wake boarding, water skiing, kayaking, and sailing. fun at camp noonan!!

at night we had camp fires and pontoon rides and s'mores.

kelly could only come for 4 days so monday morning she heads back to LA. i so wish i could head back with her for her premiere on tuesday nite, but, the "girls" are coming on wednesday and i don't want to be late when they arrive. so, two days of laundry, and clean up...and i'm still not quite ready...

karel, dorothy, and arleen arrive and we're on our way to the cabin. we had fun in the sun. a few days of wind and cooler weather but all in all a fun time for everyone!!

friday was a little cold and windy, and took an evening pontoon ride. and the sky clouded over and the wind came up again...!! we hurried back to the cabin, put the boat away and turned on the tv to find out about the storm....tornado warning!! off to the basement we went to wait out the storm. what an exciting weekend!
we headed out for a road trip on saturday!! almost 700 miles by the time it was over....to frank lloyd wrights spring green house....amazing place, tons of history and drama!! then on to a bookstore that karel and i had heard about on cbs sunday morning. it was essentially a farmer and his book hoarding wife that had over a million books on this little farm in the middle of wisconsin...what a trip!! sweet people and very interesting story. over twelve bldgs. full of books. nothing is catagorized so there are vague catagories and lots of piles...everywhere... and we only visited two bldgs. we made it back for a late dinner and a couple of bottles of wine. whew!!

the next day wanda and her friend cindy came in from minneapolis! it was rather windy so we went down to new richmond to hear the Dweebs!! fun time...then to the bowling alley for a little knocking down of the pins...then back for a pontoon ride with lots of munchies...we kinda skipped over dinner altogether tonite...oops!!

i had to head back to LA a day early this year. that gave me time to check on mom and roger before heading out again with marty. mom is not doing too well. i can see a significant change in her in just the 3 weeks that i have been in wisconsin. roger tries to keep up with her care but elizabeth and i both think that we will have to get in more help for him/her. i will be back on the 22nd and i think that we will definitely need to make changes. she had a spell last week and needed to go to hoag hospital....then he cancelled the follow-up appointment because he felt she still was not responsive enough...news break, rog, she's only going to get less responsive....poor guy, he has to deal with it daily.

it's hard to lose your mom at any time...i'm not sure what's harder...by bits and pieces or suddenly...none of it is easy. love ya mom!

2008-06-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

today is my bro, steve's, birthday...he is officially older than me...teehee! for ten short days, we are the same age. so i always take the time to remind him...he's OLDER! on his birthday...Yay!

love that boy!

2008-06-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

may has literally flown by...

i accomplished a lot on my "plan" for the month...spring cleaning was my main concentration.
Dubai was in the plan as well but as plans tend to do...it changed and no Dubai...bummer.

i will go there eventually but for now i need to head to the cabin to get ready for our summer fling. i'm so excited, it will be a fabulous summer. i only wish everyone could come and have some "lake time".

i need it for sanity's sake.

focus!

Time to go!

2008-04-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

well, our time here has come to and end. bummer...but it was great to get a taste and has just whet my appetite to come back and see more.

we had a full breakfast trying to eat up our groceries...and of course we went for a walk and to get a last view of our wonderful surroundings...and i was in search of just one more massage...

so fun. our last minute stuff was done quickly and we headed out around lunchtime...

grabbed a taxi and then got sucked into the thai check-in procedure....apparently, all the check-in counters are shared and only open two hours before the flight. so we found out which counter it was and for the first time in our recent memories, stood in line for over and hour, to wait. it paid off because things just got progressively more confusing...no problema for these experienced travelers...just kidding, it was fairly painless and we had time to relax before the flight.

after we got to Bangkok, THAT's when it got exciting for me.

i had to wait out at the check-in counter to get my seat.. they released them 8 minutes before the deadline to be at the gate. i only had to go through passport control, security and go over to another terminal to get to the gate...(heavy breathing here)

once in Hong Kong, i was sent to the transfer desk...in the E terminal...by train....once there, this lovely woman took one look at my paperwork and said i needed to go to the "staff" transfer desk in terminal A...the problem was, i had 45min. to catch my flight..unfortunately, she was unconcerned with this little detail..fortunately, another gate agent caught the panic in my eyes and said she would take care of it...which she did. unfortunately, she waited until the requisite 8min before i had to be on the flight. so i did the ole OJ run through the airport (pre-Nicole) and went through security, got on the train, went two terminals over and got out at gate 48 and only had to get to gate 80. luckily i had on my "sensible" shoes and ran like....

once at the airplane, i realized i must have gotten the last seat on the 747 and literally EVERY seat had a seat...all i can say is whew!! and 12 hours later we landed at LAX...kap kun kah!!

in the infamous words of Dorothy on her way home from Oz..."there's no place like home"....

Elephants and more...

2008-04-28T16:39:00.000-07:00

we all decided that an elephant ride was necessary to round out our trip. so off we went friday afternoon for an elephant adventure. Siam Safari, we discovered was the most humane and took the best care of their elephants. let's suffice it to say that it was amazing, and the indian elephants were so gentle and incredibly lovely...the mottled skin on their ears shows they are older...possibly 30-35 yrs old....

we went around a pathway through the tree canopy so that it wouldn't be too hot for our big friends...our big guy was Jamjaew...
his trainer is his mahoot..and is pretty much with him for life..the elephants can live to be 60 years old...yikes

after their walk...our buddies like a little fruit snack...so cute! and speaking of cute!

Great day......

Phuket continued....Thursday 10Apr

2008-04-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

well, it is time to catch up on our trip. thursday brought sunshine and incredible weather...again. good thing i like sunny, hot, and humid...but not too much humidity. after our excursion yesterday, we "rested"...again. i like this laying around by the pool. let me describe it briefly for those of you who missed it the first time......

yoga class at 8:10 am...followed by yogalates at 9:10am...back to the room to change, have a bite of breakfast..again...and some coffee and down to the pool. the boys are going to Phuket Town for a little sightseeing.

we get to the big pool and scope out our lounge chairs to make sure we have sufficient shade and a bit of breeze...the pool guy comes by to bring us ice water and fresh fruit...have i mentioned how i love this? so, after about an hour i wander down the beach for a massage...for $13.00 and then back to the lounge chair for more reading and my requisite sun time. karel times it so i get my 30 minutes per side and then a dip in the pool to cool off and back in the shade so i don't burn.....i can hear you groaning from here.

after ordering our chicken satay for lunch, we go for a little walk and there on the beach is Jumbo and his big bro swimming in the Andaman Sea and playing in the sand...so cool.

so after watching "the kids" for awhile we walked down the beach and got tatoos...yes, you heard me correctly...tatoos. well, yea, they are henna but it was fun and we giggled all the way back to the condo.....me and my BFF's time for a beer....

Koh Phi Phi....

2008-04-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

well, the boys researched different outings for us and we all decided that snorkeling in the Andaman Sea sounded great! so off to Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee, no giggling) islands for the day. we got picked up at the hotel and taken to the marina...the real or should i say, royal marina.

all in all, a fabulous day. we had a guide that somehow managed to avoid all the other tourist boats while getting us to some incredible snorkeling spots, Karel and i estimated at least twenty different kinds of coral, amazing fish, bi-valves galore....so cool and the best part...warm water, in the 80's...too much!

some monkey viewing,

a short hike, with a few reminders, lest we forget....

a great lunch, a stop at Phi Phi Don, an amazing little island that was one of the sights of the tsunami devastation where 5-6,000 people were washed away, never to be seen again...incredible!

a little relaxation time.....
....with only a short detour on the way home to make a beer run, we went back to the resort for a fabulous sunset and some dinner.truly paradise.....

Toosday.....8Apr

2008-04-17T04:30:00.000-07:00

another two classes, one yoga, one pilates...aaaahhhh, so splendid...they use words like that here....splendid. then back to shower and head to the pool for a day of sun and reading. .....so picture this... we lay by the pool under a huge umbrella so we don't turn into crispy critters, read all day while they deliver ice water and fruit to us...order a little satay for lunch...delivered to us by the pool, and then wander down the beach for a break and get a massage....ok, so am i slow or what?? what took me so long? yikes, we got a great massage (for an hour) for 400 baht (about $13). I could DEFINITELY do this daily, or, could i maybe take one of these ladies home in my suitcase??.i am so indulged....and my question is...why did i wait until tuesday?? OMG! it feels wonderful...absolutely brilliant...another word that the Brits and Aussies use...love it!

...a little more pool time...then back to our condo for a brewski and snacks...what's not to like?

Casey, Wanda's son and two of his buddies Josh and Taylor joined us last night. Casey has been studying in Bangkok since january and is now traveling a bit before heading back to the OC.
so da boys made us some pasta for dinner and we tried to stay awake until 10, without much luck....the problem with that is, i've been waking up at about 0155 and staying awake until 0430 then dozing til 0630 and i'm up for the day.....

.....hhhmm, i think my internal clock has some defective batteries. but all in all, a great day!

but before we hit the rack, plans for tomorrow...more fun.

Phuket Town...

2008-04-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

today Wanda and i went to the health club and did two...count em 2 classes. we are SO virtuous! that means another dessert at dinner, right? except that we did a astanga yoga and a pilates class... and i can barely move my arms. am i out of shape or what? Karel passed on the classes and i was thinking about midway through the second class that she had a pretty good idea about reading and stuff.......

after we came back and showered (it was 85 degrees and 90% humidity) while we did our classes outside...what were we thinking???? a little breakfast, a little coffee...mmmmm, yum!

then on to Phuket Town. and here we were thinking it was a "town", it is a CITY!! we got there on the shuttle and were dropped off in front of a tourist office...how sly are they? then Cha, tried to convince us to take his tour of Phuket Town. in his air-conditioned car. 2 hours for 100 baht or 5 hours for 200 baht ($6 per person?) and we said we had to think about it and went for a walk....for about 3 1/2 minutes and almost melted on the sidewalk because by now it is 102 degrees.....then back across the street to see Cha and there he is with his car all ready and the door open to let in us gringos...oops, wrong language..in.

Basic tour around town...wants us to see all the "shopping sights". we were kinda vague about what we wanted but wanted to see the Buddha on the hill and the temple, and get some souveniers for Wanda cuz she's in the "i need to bring home stuff for people" mode.

so.... he takes us to see Buddha....
after Buddha, we got herded into the Gems Super Store...which was personally guided shopping. I can't believe we got sucked into this tourist trap "shopping experience".Yikes! get me out of here!!...THEN we went to the "locals" shopping mall, where they have all the "knock-offs" and it REALLY wasn't what we were looking for....they really had some fascinating mannequins, however. Just to show you a couple....

a little bit different than we were used to...or expected, however, it was a big huge space..kinda like a convention room with one stall after another of ugly clothing...but at least it was cheap....

we told Cha we needed fruit so we hit some roadside stands and got some awesome fruit.

then he told us we should go see the "marina" area. well, my idea of a marina varies vastly from Cha's. so he took us to this restaureant on the water...well it would have been on the water but the tide was OUT....way out.

but a few local boys found it to be fun. we were going to get something to eat but the restaurant was a tad sketchy so with Karel being our designated worrier..it was a definite NO. so, two beers later, we giggled our way back to the car and the grocery store.

but, on our way to the grocery store, Cha dropped AGAIN at his cousins silk shop where we politely but emphatically told them no, thank you very little, we didn't need or want YARDS of silk. AAAAAARRRGGHHHHH!

on to the grocery store...as luck would have it, right where Cha dropped us off to get groceries, was EXACTLY the store we were looking for. as Ariel, The little Mermaid would say...."we 've got gadgets and gidgets aplenty...we've got whooosits and whatsits galore.....we found souvenooers for everyone...then ran across the street to get groceries in 10 minutes..damn we're good!!

we were hustled outside the store for yet another tour from a taxi driver...all while our man Cha stood holding the door (our door) of his car for us...slightly remininscent of India...

we got back to our hotel shuttle van and luckily were the only ones going back because we took up a little more room with our bags of food, beer and wine and of course, "stuff".

happy to be "home", we had a bottle of wine and mourned briefly for his lost sibling that broke as we were fishing for our key and he fell over in exhaustion and broke...we're talking about wine here.....then we pawed through all our loot and enjoyed a few belly laughs at our adventures of the day.....

Khawp khun kah!

Sunday and sawadee kah...

2008-04-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

sunday morning and the sun is shining...an early morning walk on the beach....about an hour at 8am and we were feeling a tad cooked. no one swimming in the ocean...or i should say the andaman sea. it is SO warm, it feels like tahiti. apparently it is dangerous to swim out off many of the beaches because it gets deep so quickly and there is a tremendous undertow. we waded out a little but felt that the warnings should be respected...how rare for us....

up to the pool for our selected lounges for the day.... we were pampered and shaded and brought ice water all day long.

what a pool! it is about 75 meters long...for those international people of you who go with the metric flow. a baby elephant wandering about to our delight and and people watching galore! There is also a north pool right near our condo that is pretty darn neat!!...very jungly.
we dipped in and out of the water all day long to stay cool and that combined with the breeze off the water made it soooo wonderful. we were so indulged!!

we did however get a tad too much sun even with our careful shade umbrellas and sunscreen...but not too badly. karel was the one who was really good and no burning at all.

after a refreshing shower and walk around the grounds to explore our surroundings a bit more...we stopped at the andaman grill, and had an amazing dinner and wine...our splurge for the day. yum...and an outside dining area with open sides to see the sea with an incredible light show as it rained and lighteninged all through our dinner..... fabulous!!

back to our room for relaxing and moisturizer....and gallons more water....this is one hot place.

Sawadee kah!

2008-04-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

welcome to thailand!

well, i made it after a false start on cathay pacific. weight restricted...no surprise there, and waved goodbye to karel and wanda. sniff, sniff! but as luck would have it, thai airways had a non-stop to bangkok that left 12 hours later, 11pm on the 3rd of april...so home to taco surf and a short nap.

back to the airport and on to thai airways...great flight, if you can call 17 hrs and 45 min ...great. we were only one hour late leaving and arrived in bangkok at 8 am saturday morning. wanda and karel showed up around 9 after a brief night at the Novatel Hotel. so the girls are together again...YAY!

Bangkok Airways at 11:45 to phuket was uneventful and our ride met us at the airport to carry us to JW Marriot Phuket Beach Club.

WOW! what a place! we are ready to be in paradise for a week of luxury. and it is paradise....

we canvased the resort for snacks and food for the condo....everything is a tad expensive but what the heck...I'M ON VACATION!!

we kinda laid low and ate dinner in the condo with beer and snacks. then fell into bed about 8:30pm and lucky to have lasted that long.

Sawadee kah! and god bless!!

Sunrises and gratitude.....

2008-03-23T07:13:00.000-07:00

it is Easter morning and the sunrise was beautiful. not in the WOW, did you see that!! kind of way. but in the deep breath and long slow stretch kind of way. i am sitting here and realizing, once again, how lucky i am. i am so grateful for my life.

i am blessed with many things. i am surrounded by lovely objects and all the conveniences i could possibly want....and then some.... i have not one, but two incredible homes that are filled with , yet again, "things" that fill me with warm feelings when i see them because they elicit so many memories or i love the way they make our home warm and comfortable......

but the "things" i am most grateful for are the people in my life. people...what an odd word to encompass the real feelings and emotions encapsuled in each family member or each friend.

family...Mom, the woman i grew up with, always there for all of us...in a time when things were much simpler. now, with the changes in time, roles reversed, we all need understanding love and patience. i am so grateful that Roger came into our lives when he did. first a family friend, then a husband to Mom, then a father to us. an anchor for Mom to hold on to as her reality drifts and changes.

family...Dad, Sumner....what can i say...he was dad and today is his birthday. i have lots of memories, great memories. he lived hard and died too young. it is a reminder to take care of what has been given to us...it can all be taken away in a blink of an eye. a good man, he did his best as a dad...maybe not such a good husband sometimes...but that's another story. BUT (notice the big but) if not for Dad, our family would not be what it is.. for that i am eternally grateful.

family...Stephen, Michael, David, Elizabeth...what a privilege and blessing it is to have four such amazing sibs. i had always thought that my family was pretty much the norm. it wasn't until i got older and realized that what we had and have is incredible. Thanks for being who you are and bringing so much joy to my life. your families: Carolyn, Melanie, Jan, Colin, Maggie, Elizabeth, Kate, Shannon, Henry, Emma, Laci, Joe and Sam make our lives full.

family....when we were blessed with Roger, he brought David and Cynthia, aka Cincia my favorite traveling partner with him to add to our family. another brother and sister to share and laugh and cry with. David's family also grew to include Debbie, Ben, Geoffrey, Tim and Matt....and it still grows as each of them have added to the numbers and names and love....

family...Marty, my chosen family. an amazing person with whom i have chosen to love and live my life and raise our children. i am so grateful at what a blessed gateway that choice was...

family....Ryan Patrick and Kelly, two amazing, incredible, warm, loving, talented, intelligent, sensitive, insightful, beautiful inside and out...i could go on for hours...kids, no, adults....i am so blessed and filled with love and gratitude.

family...Betty and Marty, my second family for whom i am so grateful. i have always known how lucky i was to marry a loving man with a great family. some are not so lucky....

family....Pat and Mike were added to my brothers and sisters. Family occasions are always filled with lots of lively conversations....some arguments, some agreements...Jim keeps us on our toes. Shannon, now Elijah, Erin and Andrew have grown into amazing adults and I always enjoy being with them. with Mike gone, there is a hole that we fill with some incredible memories, and we have Sara and Jenna, both have grown into strong and wonderful women, and with us too infrequently now for my liking but there is always the memory of having them with us in our home as one family for a few years, something for which i am always grateful....and the there's Noah, he has grown up so fast...a wonderful young man..11 years have flown by...too fast..... i am grateful for any time we all can spend together.

family...there are so many more that i can't name them for fear of missing one...you are in my heart and i am grateful...

family....friends, another kind of family, the ones we choose...for where would we be without our friends?? i for one, would not have made it as well, through some of the highs and lows of life....if it not for friends...good friends...best friends....i am so grateful.... every day.

i don't want to go to that weepy, sappy place so i will take another deep breath...and long, slow stretch....and say thank you all for being a part of my life.

i am filled with gratitude every time i see a picture and i remember what caused me to want to capture that particular moment in time...and i smile.

i love you all!

Resolutions, intentions, promises, dreams.....

2008-02-01T15:42:00.000-08:00

this year i have made the conscious effort not to make the usual "resolutions" which usually end about mid-february. instead, i am in search of my authentic self. it will be a long process because i plan to search slowly so that i don't drop any pieces along the way. you know, when you eat a cookie or a chip, and the first enthusiastic bite has you grabbing the pieces falling from your mouth so you don't lose any on the floor.

i like to think that i charge into new things and clean up the mess later....but that is not the case. actually, sometimes, i am rather .....careful. if i don't do something....or do.......or almost.....shouldas wouldas and couldas...it's a disease. this year i intend to have ease...without the dis.

ryan is working on low drag. my low drag represents something different. things that produce "drag" for me are.....regrets..........shouldas, wouldas, couldas......fear.

No Regrets is my mantra. Do it NOW!! Live, love, laugh....more often. Spend time with the people i love. Try all things i've thought about for years. thinking is ok, but doing is DYNAMIC. i'm going to ...

think less

do more

2007 in review

2008-01-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

Lots of memorable moments.. we burst into the new year with Mike and Linda Wade and Jan and Rene Robert. Lots of fun and spent the champagne filled night on the Wades boat....good choice. January filled with skiing at Mammoth, Palm Springs with the girls, a little work and a lot of fun. Ryan's # 30...how can THAT be??

February: my bros Mike and Dave came to visit..I miss those "boys" we always have fun. A few auditions, an improv class and a little Central Casting work... a little skiing too. Sara moved in with us to save some money and get ready to move to Hawaii.

March: what's the saying?...in like a Lion?.. fun party in Chicago with some "old friends". Saw the Hunts, George Getschow, Jim Crowley, Lynn Hoffman, John "Otis" Ostry.....to name only a few. Lots of fun and great to see everyone. More improv, a trip to the desert and Marty signs a contract with Jet Airways of India for 3 more years on the 777. Kelly's # 28.

April: Lots of busy work and socializing

May: Kelly and I excited about the possibility of TAR...but alas, rejected. A trip to the cabin to check on things and start to prep for summer. The horse drive was a no-go... bummer.

June: Cabin prep and fun. Got the boats in the water and the season's first pontoon party. Had to get our own pontoon this year. What's another boat in the fleet?? Brady Flynn got married and another one of our "kids" is an adult and starting his own family...yikes.

July: Our first annual 4th of July reunion week was a huge success and plans for next year have started already. My 35th Regis College (University) reunion in Denver...lots of fun and a lot of reacquainting with old friends. I have been so blessed to have such amazing opportunities to meet so many wonderful people. The girls came to the lake and since it was just Karel and Dorth, we were able to relax and be lazy. Marty left for India to start his training with Jet Airways on the 22nd. Namaste! Kelly's first RED CARPET Premiere. "Border Lost" She did a great job on the movie and I am so proud of my girl!!

August: Sara moved to Kona Hawaii. I really miss that girl. I went to Italy with Dorth and we met up with Arleen and Ashley Tolle, Mary Coates and Sharon Sloane. Loads of fun! Visited Ryan and went to Croatia and Slovenia as well. Gone almost 3 weeks with lots of adventures.

September: Back to the cabin, and the Fall Festival. Always fun. Dennis and Sandy came in and great to see them. Golfing lessons with Tony and another wedding...Laura Legacki in Sacramento. Beautiful!! Cynthia and David in to see Roger. Always fun to have them here.

October: Lauren Westberg wedding, Hoover Dam canoe trip..fabulous as usual. Horse drive was too crowded so no go...bummer. Went to the cabin, instead. Yay!

November: Trip to Florida to check on Kelly's house and negotiate bathroom remodel. Veranda closing was a conflicting emotional mess. But it is now ours and hopefully will be rented soon. Micheal came to visit and see Mom. Fun visit and stuck close to home. Thanksgiving with Elizabeth and Laci and then on to Jackson WY to take care of Shannon, Henry and Emma while Dave and Kate are in Ireland.

December: I got home Dec. 3rd and Ryan arrived on the 5th. I have been so excited to have him HOME. well, that's a relative statement. he's in cali but i get glimpses and sightings so i can't complain...or whine. Great to have him around but not so relaxing for him. Running around trying to see people he hasn't seen in years, getting stuff done in order to leave the country for yet another year. Pressure from all sides to spend more time here or there...his mother notwithstanding. But all in all I was SO happy to see him...i didn't mind, much. :) I figure he's young...he'll recover quickly...i hope. Christmas in St. George with Noonie and Pop, Elijah, Scott, Erin, Andy, Pat, Jim, Kelly, Ryan and Heather. The only one missing was Marty. He was at work and we really missed him. Christmas in LB on the 26th with Mamama and Roger and Cynthia, E2, Laci and the boys. Go, go, go.... hectic as it was, it was great to see my boy!! But, as always, some things are great but bittersweet. Reunions and separations always bring a tear....

Looking back, a terrific year. Some exceptionally good times, some just great :) Time to smile and remember....

2008-01-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

A requiem for the little pieces....

2007-10-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

well, i finally got a call that i have a package waiting in the office. Yay! i have been waiting for WEEKS since ryan told me he mailed it from italia.

THE BOX, the one dorth and i packed so carefully because it was filled with our italian memories, finally came. i rushed down with much anticipation and found out it has been there for weeks!! WEEKS! yikes, no one told me. so not only was i excited, i was kind of annoyed that NO ONE TOLD ME!!

i rushed to dorth's house and opened it up. apparently we had not packed it as well as we thought. one thing after another was broken...sniff..

the pottery i found in castelinni was smashed....into little pieces...how could that be? the bowl was salvageable with some crazy glue but my pretty tray was a jigsaw puzzle....sniff, sniff.

what really amazed me was the randomness of the broken pieces. one thing was fine and right next to it was a mashed mound of broken remains. ah well, there were still lots of memories that survived. and we'll always have siena...right dorth??

so i sit here looking at the pile o stuff that didn't make it and have a moment of silence for the memories that were made and the detritus that remains....

love those memories. it's one thing the postal service can't take away, sniff....

Off to the Cabin...

2007-10-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

so here i am sitting in the northwest lounge at lax waiting to go to THE CABIN! i am kinda excited because i am anticipating some great fall foliage. Marty has been there all week and it has been raining. so here i come and it will be sunny. i just know it.

karel took me to the airport this morning...she's my a.m. go-to girl. so i check in and the flight has been delayed one hour 15 minutes. bummer. so here i sit. coffee, bagel, more coffee, yawn....sure hope i get on. i has been a long time since i have taken nwa. their flights are always full. but today, that will change and i will be in minneapolis by 1:30. Yay!

Family, friends, occaisions, and fun...

2007-09-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a weekend event. The wedding of a friend. Actually the daughter of friends. Laura Legacki and Andrew Houk were married in Sacramento, CA this weekend. It is amazing to me how when friends move away to other towns or states, we think of them often, but rarely make the effort to go and visit. These are friends that we saw every Friday as our children were growing up. We made the effort to meet for Pizza Night because with our busy schedules, it was the only way to ensure that we would see each other and catch up. What happens when the kids grow up and move on? Are we still friends? Do we ever get together? The answer is Yes, and No.

The core of the Pizza Night group were together at last. A number of our children have gotten married and we have had "events" to bring us together. But, somehow, someone was always missing or they were one night affairs where we scurried back to our busy lives and buried our noses in our "life". I'm not sure what made this different. Maybe it was only different for me, but, I realized that a part of our lives has changed and will never be the same. Now, I'm not dim...I know that we cannot resurrect our good times from life gone by, but, it was just so good to see everyone happy, smiling, enjoying each others company again. It is something to be able to say...sure wish everyone were closer so we could do this more often. But, we're not..

But maybe, just maybe, we are meant to have moments like these to remind us just how good we DO have it. To be grateful for the people that have come through our lives...some for a day, a week, a month, a few years...and know that we can remember for a lifetime. It is incredible how we can catch up on news and pick up as if we haven't seen each other since last Friday night...

We laughed, remembered good times, talked of keeping in touch with each other and I hope we do.

The final leg....

2007-09-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Day 16: Tuesday August 28
This morning, we lounged only a little bit, then a quick gourmet breakfast of Black bean and cheese quesadillas and then off to Sacile to begin our trek to Rome. Ryan dropped us at the train and with 15 minutes to spare. We made our train to Venezia and then bought our tickets to Roma there. We arrived in Rome at 4pm.

While on the train we checked our Rick Steves book and picked out the Beehive Hostel for our nightly accommodations. We called while on the train to make a reservation and found they had room at a shared condo called Clover…cute huh?? We checked in, got our key and walked about 10 minutes to our room. It was very near the train station in Rome’s Chinatown. Nice place!! It was the deal in Rome.

From there we started our tour of Rome. First to the Basilica of St. Mary de Maggiorre and then on to the Forum and Coliseum, we were walking fools. It was near sundown and we still had the Trevi Fountain to find. Up some hills and down some cobblestone streets and up one more hill and we happened upon an amazing view of Rome at sunset. Some of our best views and experiences have been on the tail of mistakes.

Well, we wound around a few more streets and found the Trevi Fountain. Beautiful, wish you were here!! Kind of beautiful. Then at the threat of chewing off Dorothys arm, I said we had to find sustenance. Somehow, all the cute street side restaurants disappeared and all we found were cars, buses, traffic and no food. AAAarrgh! Well, FINALLY, we happened upon a restaurant and I sat down and refused to budge until I had wine. Just kidding, but only marginally. We ended up having a nice meal for our last dinner in Italy. It was topped off with an accordion player strolling through the place playing something lively and Italian…who could ask for more??

While walking home satiated from our meal, we decided to stop at the train station and check it out for morning and buy our tickets in advance…aren’t we just the seasoned travelers? Low and behold, the book store is open and Dorth finds a book for the trip home. She later discovered that she paid $18 for the privilege of buying an English book at the train station. Such a deal!! But at least we got ripped off one more time as we bought fruit and a bottle of water for morning for only another $16. Such entrepreneurs these Italians!! But c’est la vie!! Ooops, wrong language.

Back to our room (the best deal around) for a good night sleep and an early get up. Yawn, full day and lots of adventures.

Day 17: Wednesday August 29
The final day of our trip started out beautifully. Great weather, good night’s sleep and yummy fruit that must be made of gold…☺

We got to the Rome airport without any glitches. Dorth and I kinda said goodbye and we’d call each other from the states to rendezvous in LA. We weren’t sure we’d see each other once we got through security and stuff. But, as luck would have it, we met just inside near the duty free shops. I took Dorth to the President’s Club or whatever it is called there. I then found out that my flight was delayed one hour and I would actually leave a few minutes after Dorothy. We spent an hour and a half eating, drinking coffee and relaxing. Nice way to travel. When we went down to the gates, we found Rhiannon again and caught up with some of her travels. Amazingly, Dorth had gone online at Ryan’s to pick an aisle seat for the trip to DC. When Rhiannon pulled out her boarding pass, she was sitting NEXT to Dorth. Do, do do do…very twilight zoney. So I said goodbye and I’ll see you in LA and off I went to my gate.

Well, as luck would have it, one more time☺, I got First Class and traveled to Newark in style. I am so blessed!

When I reached Newark, I had 32 minutes to get through customs, back through security and find Marty and make it to the flight to LAX. Somehow I made it with 8 minutes to spare. Marty came running up (both of our flights were late), and we boarded the plane with a huge sigh of relief. I hadn’t seen Marty in 6 weeks so it was a great coming home and welcome home all at once.

When we finally landed in LA, Dorth was 30 minutes behind us so we picked up the car, swung by and got Dorth at United and drove to the LBC. Our timing has been incredible the whole trip and apparently lasted until the last leg home. It’s great to be home.

Somehow, no matter where we go and how fabulous the trip is, I always love the feeling when I walk in the door and know, I’m HOME. Sigh......

The fun continues.......

2007-09-04T09:00:00.001-07:00

Day 9: Tuesday August 21

The beautiful day started out with a fabulous breakfast in a lovely sunny room. I got up a little early and had a peaceful walk around the city to explore a little on my own. A lovely little hill town with lots of flowery window boxes, I knew it wouldn’t take long to see with the girls, but I wanted to absorb a small piece of Italy undisturbed.

After breakfast, we all headed out to check out the spectacular panorama and see the favorite church in town. It was pretty spectacular as well, in its simplicity. The rococo chandelier was the center of its adornment. Very lovely, almost made me want to stay for mass…almost. It did, however, give me a moment of reflection to realize how lucky I am to be able to just take off and see these amazing places all over the world. It’s incredible how one small moment in a small town in the middle of a country far from home can bring you to your knees with gratitude for all the things you’ve been blessed with.

We headed out for Assisi. You have to love these Italian drivers. I have been driving for most of our time here. It never ceases to amaze me how these laid back people who take 3 hours to eat a meal and stroll around town like they have nothing but time, get behind the wheel of a car and go wild!! Zipping in and out, riding your butt on a rain slicked road, pass with 2 inches (or should I say centimeters) to spare as you are flying down a curving road. Yikes! Ya gotta love ‘em! But I digress…

We headed for Assisi. It came highly recommended by my sis Cinchia. As we entered town, clutching Rick Steves guide and looking for parking, we realized the lot he recommended was closed. CLOSED!! How DARE they! So we circled the town and looked for more… none to be found…unless you considered parking on the side of the road and effectively blocking a whole lane. Here is where I mention that we are driving a Range Rover. Somewhat larger than these little Smart cars we pass on the road. Let me mention here that sometimes they are passing us…. But, yet again, I digress… So we circled and came back through town to check again to see if the lot was REALLY closed. Meanwhile, the traffic has increased (it seems) expotentially. We are stopped as one of the cars ahead of us has decided that the lot can’t REALLY be closed. So he has blocked the road AND the entrance. Meanwhile, we have blocked the Bus station and a very angry bus driver is honking and waving his arms at US! EXCUSE ME! But I’m not giving up my spot…just in case they open up the parking lot. This is where Arleen says “I’ll go see what’s up” and jumps from the car. We have been seeing cars leaving the lot so we know that there are spots available.

The next thing we know, Arleen is with the parking attendant and he has put down the chain and is letting cars in…YAY!! He lets in exactly 4…we are number 4. WHEW! He then walks down with us, I’m still driving, and escorts us to a parking place and waits while we park and lock up the car. Go Arleen! Then he continues to hang out while we go back to the car to retrieve some forgotten items. Is he waiting for a tip?? We try to tip him and no he won’t accept it. HHHMMMM wassup? Next thing I know is that he corners me and asks for my phone number and how long I’ll be in town. Gee Sandy, ya still got it. I will mention here that he was about 5’2”. What is it with me and short guys?? After setting our little man straight, thank you very much but I’m very married.. we continued on to see the sights of Assisi. An amazing place and well worth the effort even though our earlier mentioned travel agent tried to steer us clear of the place.

The Basilica was fabulous. Layer upon layer of altars and side chapels. The crypt of St Francis and his four buddies was pretty powerful. There were a number of people praying and many visitors had brought pictures of loved ones and slipped them into the crypt area. One man was crying and kneeling up close. I felt I had to stop and say a prayer for him. He seemed so desperate. Once again, thank you Lord for all my blessings.

The rest of the town was wonderful as well. We stopped for a coffee when we met up with everyone. We have been splitting up to see more things and then everyone can see what they want without the whole crowd mentality. Good idea.

Our next stop was supposed to be Deruta, which is the town where there are like 300 ceramics shops or so I’m told. We decided to pass on Deruta and head to Cortona because it was getting too late to do both. Disappointing, but a good call. There is no way we could have done either of them justice by trying to do both.

Cortona was our last stop. Recently made famous by the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun, starring Diane Lane, it was small and charming. There wasn’t anything of historical note but we walked and browsed and had a terrific ending to a lovely two days. What made it particularly memorable was the place we picked for dinner. While checking out all the stores in town, we asked about places to eat. One cute young lady gave us her two picks. While Dorth and I sat and mulled over our glasses of vino rosso,(Hey! Somebody’s gotta do it!) Arleen and Mary checked out the eating establishments and found us to report their findings. While drinking our wine, I kept looking around for Avalon and Russ Hill. This is the town where they bought a farmhouse with working farm property a few years back and I halfway expected to see them walk by. But since it is summer, I reasoned they probably have it rented out and gave up my search. Later I found out that they were indeed at the farmhouse…well, maybe next time.

We ended up choosing a little neighborhood haunt that seemed cute and popular and was reported to have good food.

One lesson I learned on this trip is that when you want to go someplace, no matter how small, be it a restaurant OR a picking a room, you want to make a reservation. Who would have thunk it?? So about 8:15 we moseyed in to the Ristorante, which by the way was jumping, and requested a table. WELL! Romano was the owner and VERY loquacious and animated and let us know in no uncertain terms that he was full and had reservations coming in for all the otherwise unoccupied tables. BUT! In about 15 seconds he said, after conferring with his watch, that if we could be finished by 9:30 (that’s 2130 to all you military types), that we could have this cute little table upfront. So being Americans, who tend not to use the table for 3 hours per meal, and having to drive all the way back to the Villa tonight, we said GREAT!! No Problema! (Spanish seemed to suffice here as far as we were concerned.) And we hustled in and made ourselves at home.

Terrific meal and watching Romano “work” the restaurant was entertainment enough. About every 15 minutes as he zoomed past to check on everyone in the place, he’d ask us how everything was and wave his arms and say, “good, good, la la la la la,” and check his watch. He was charming and funny and made the evening quite entertaining.

During the course of the meal, we met the diners around us and apparently he made the same offer to the other two tables near us about leaving at 9:30. So we were all getting fast service and great food. Not an altogether bad arrangement. At about 9:22, and I mean that literally there is no “about” about it. Romano comes to the table and says “You want dessert?” and as we nod our heads in unison, thinking we’d share one or two, he says, “Good, Good, I pick, you like” and disappears. About 45 seconds later, four fabulous desserts appear with Romano saying, “you like, eat, eat”. Between laughing and ordering coffee, we finish our desserts and grab our stuff and move to the bar where we have our coffee and pay our bill while sitting on the stairs to the back room and kitchen. Let me say here just how small the bar is. We had three tables doing the same thing and we were all enjoying ourselves immensely.

While wandering back to the car, we popped in to tell the young salesgirl how much we enjoyed her recommendation and of course did a little shopping since it was the only store open until 10:00pm. Altogether, it was a fun ending to an eventful day.

Day 10: Wednesday August 22
Sharon Sloan arrived this morning and after four straight days of marathon sightseeing, we decided to lay low and relax at the Villa. The girls all decided to go to San Casciano to do a little shopping for food and supplies. I decided to stay at the villa to catch up on what was happening under my eyelids. Fascinating pastime and well worth the effort.

Katarina, the housekeeper, made us a delicious meal and we sat around the table and talked and laughed until 1:30am.

Day 11: Thursday August 23
We awoke this morning to news that Sharon’s father had passed away during the night. Not altogether surprising, it was nonetheless sad news to start the day. Sharon had anticipated that this could happen and had made the necessary arrangements before she left. She handled everything amazing well.

So, the troops rallied and we headed out to the Chianti Road. With Betty (our infamous GPS guide), we drove to the Chianti region, which by the way was amazingly close. As luck would have it!!!

We started out in Greve which was a charming little town nestled around the typical open piazza. The rain, which had been threatening, finally started and we dashed hither and yon but still managed to have an eventful day. We did a wine tour at a little family owned winery called.. gee what was the name? It’s hard to remember when you start drinking at 10am. Cute place, good wine, what more can you ask?? Good thing I was the designated driver. Can you see my tongue in cheek?

Our second town was Castellini and by this time the rain had settled in for a good while so we dashed up the hill to a terrific little restaurant that Rick Steves had recommended and found that we concurred with his evaluation. Yummy!

Since we never got to Deruta, I always had my eye out for ceramics. Castellini had a cute store that I felt I must give a chance. Well, bargain hunter that I am, I found two pieces that were slightly marred. They never spotted my little hammer ☺. Just kidding. So I got two pieces that were “reduced” and am now a happy gal.

The last town of the day was Radda. A darling,(aren’t they all?)medieval town where we walked, shopped and had gelato. Gee, something new. But, the rain had stopped and once again, a great time was had by all.

Katarina cooked for us again and we talked until all hours. Luckily, Dorth and I had packed earlier and we fell into bed exhausted.

Day 12: Friday August 24
This was a travel day for Dorticus and Sandy. Great story how Dorothy got this nickname…but that’s another story. Anyway, Arleen dropped Dorth and me at the bus station in San Casciano. While looking for the place to buy tickets, we were directed to a gelateria. Boy, what a great country, gelato, bus tickets, all in one convenient spot. Gotta love it.

Took the bus to Firenze, then the train to Sacile via Venezia. Boy, don’t I sound good? Ryan, aka Patrick picked us up and drove us to his home sweet home in Budoia. We changed clothes and had a bottle of wine and snacks and then walked (he didn’t want to drive because there would be much drinking and celebration) to a neighborhood restaurant for a Hail and Farewell party with his squadron buddies. (Some guys are leaving and new guys are coming in. Ryan leaves for Korea in December) Let me inject here that I’m not sure what neighborhood we are talking about. It seemed about 2 miles away and after all that drinking and celebration more like 6 or 7 miles. But we made it home in one piece.

Day 13: Saturday August 25
By morning that one piece seemed a little shattered as the result of cheap wine (and by this I mean CHEAP not quite on the same caliber as Chianti Classico) and shots of Jagermeister. So after recovering with steak and eggs and about 2 liters of water and a couple of espressos. We headed out on yet another road trip.

This time our destination was the Island of Krk in Croatia. Those Croatians are apparently not big on vowels. So we headed out and went through Trieste (that always sounds exotic to me) and then a quick drive through Slovenia and into Croatia. It took about 5 1/2 hours to get there and the scenery was beautiful. Hills and trees and the Dolomites in the distance made for a spectacular vista. There were no vineyards, however, and I kinda missed those little fellas. I guess Croatia isn’t known for its wine.

Well, we found Krk and drove to the southern tip, to the town of Krk. Hmmm...Krk, Krk, Croatia. It is the only Island in this little group of islands that has a bridge to it from the mainland. Sure made it easy for us.

Once in Krk, we found the Hostel Krk and boy, was it a departure from the style to which we had become accustomed. But, it was a great equalizer and brought us back to the real world and really was a throw back to my travel days as a kid. Ryan, Dorothy and I shared a room with 3 beds, a queen and bunk beds. We were asked if it would be a problem, if they filled up, to put someone in with us. We, of course, said no and schlepped our stuff up the stairs. Then off we went to explore the town. Our first matter of business was to find food. The steak and eggs wore off hours ago and I was waiting for Ryan to start gnawing on my arm. Unfortunately, Croatia is not part of the EU and the restaurant we chose would not take euros….well, at least the waitress was crabby. So then our first matter of business was to find a Bancomat, or whatever it is called here, to get some Kunas. Success was only about 10 minutes away and soon we were sitting watching the Adriatic and having a yummy lunch/dinner. The restaurant was a great place to people watch as well and we settled in for a while to relax and enjoy.

After dinner, Dorth was hot to shop for a few last minute gifts and so we split up and Ryan and I went for a walk to watch the sunset and of course, take pictures. Luckily, we found some beach towels for sale. Unluckily, they cost almost as much as the room, which sadly, didn’t have towels. So much for cheap rooms.

We headed back to the Hostel fairly early (for us night owls), and attempted to get a good nights sleep. Let me say here that that was easier said than done. Our room was on the street side and the street was about 8 feet wide, wall to wall. So it was better for motorcycles and drunks walking home, of which there were a few…and at least they were loud. The temperature cooled to a balmy 85 degrees when the sun went down with not a breath of air moving. My better sleeping through chemicals philosophy seemed to work well for me, however, Ryan was not so lucky. Dorth, who seemed to sleep every other night on this trip, was I guess on a “not” night. So with a small flashlight clenched in her teeth, she read most of the night. Oblivious to their plight, I sawed the zzzz’s.

Day 14: Sunday August 26
After breakfast at the hostel, we decided to head down to the beach for a couple of hours of sun and swimming in the Adriatic before starting back to Budoia. Dorothy had about 5 minutes of wrestling with her conscience on whether to go to mass or go to the beach. Luckily, the beach won and I’m sure she will burn in hell for her decision…HEATHEN!

The trip back to Italy was much faster as we avoided Trieste. This allowed us more time in Slovenia. So breakfast in Croatia, lunch in Slovenia and dinner in Italy. Well aren’t we just the globe trotters!!

Ryan cooked stew for us for dinner in his new D.O. (that’s Dutch Oven for you less cool people). It was very delicious! While it was cooking, Dorth got on the computer and attempted to chronicle our adventures in an email. Unfortunately, she hit the wrong button, AGAIN, while trying to send it and deleted the whole thing. Two hours of work wiped away with the press of a button. Luckily, Ryan is more computer savvy than either Dorth or I and was able to “find” it floating out there somewhere. My HERO, saved the day again!! Meanwhile, Ryan and I watched a movie and relaxed while our stew was stewing.

Day 15: Monday August 27
Paddy aka Ryan went into work about 1030 so we had an easy morning. Ryan even made pancakes for us...FROM SCRATCH!! How yummy were they! Truly a renaissance man is my boy! After he left, Dorth and I attempted to “help out” by cleaning a little and repacking our suitcases. We very consciously waited until the stores opened up after reposo at 4pm or 1600 depending on how you look at it, to do some shopping for Paddy and stock him up on some stuff. HELLO!! Could somebody have told me that the stores CLOSE at 4pm on Monday??? So we took a walk into Budoia in hopes that a small market or SOMETHING would be open. Well! As luck would have it, the only thing open was a Bar/Café on the corner of this little road. Once again, fate intervenes to help us make some memories. We walked in and found a table (there was only one other person in there besides us and the bartender and only three tables in the establishment). The Bartender was this 83 year old woman who we named Margareta. Small, skinny and grey hair pulled back into a bun, she looked about 90. Well, we ordered due (that’s two) vino rosso and started to “chat” with the only other patron in the bar. His name was Giuliano and he spoke a little English. So, armed with our trusty phrase book, we attempted to answer him in Italian…for about 3 minutes. Much arm waving and pointy talky ensued. As we planned to leave, Giuliano bought us another round and we graciously accepted since it was already being poured. We can’t be rude now can we?? Meanwhile, the 5 o'clock whistle must have blown because the bar has started to fill up with guys coming in on their way home from work. One quick glass of wine, a glance in our direction, and out the door they go. Truly drink and run. However, the best was the drive thru drink. We hear this rumble outside, a guy walks in and gets a glass of wine, chats for a few, drinks his wine and back out to jump on his tractor (which he left running) and drive home. One more round on Giuliano and we say enough thank you very much and we’re out the door. As we stumble down the street…just kidding, we laugh all the way home about our shopping afternoon….with no groceries to show for it. Ah well, we’re in Italy.

Tuscany and back...

2007-08-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

Day One: August 13
After a mad rush to the airport, I got to the airport in plenty of time but unfortunately the flights all filled up and the 7:30 flight to Newark cancelled…which messed up the rest of the day. Four hours later…I got a zedfare ticket on Air Canada. So back home to try another day…..It only took 8 hrs to figure out I wasn’t going to make it to Newark any day soon. Dorth had equally bad luck and rescheduled to leave tomorrow as well. Maybe because it’s the 13th….nah, I’m not superstitious…no, really….

Back to the LBC and met Karel for a Golden Spoon and an update on the day. Early to bed to start..again….. on our trip.

Day Two: August 14
Picked up Dorth at 0500 and off to the airport. Relatively eventful. I caught an Air Canada flight to Montreal and made the connection to Rome. Arrived 0725 on the 15th of August. Amazing how the times flys…so to speak. The flight was uneventful and I had an exit row to myself. Unfortunately it was next to the bathrooms so …..I had 150 of my best friends come by to visit during the flight.

Day Three: August 15
I reached the airport about an hour and a half ahead of Dorothy so I waited in Baggage claim and Voila! There she came right on schedule. She had met a lovely young Irish Lass by the name of Rhiannon who asked to travel with us to Firenze and of course we said Sure! Unfortunately during our ticket buying and running to get the train…she couldn’t change her ticket in time from the later train so we lost her.. our loss, she was delightful.

For a day that started out with the loss of a new friend, we made up for it in no time. Arleen and Ashley Tolle picked us up at the train station and a quick stop back at the villa to change and head out to Siena and the Palio!!

What an experience that was!! We arrived and found parking easily…a complete surprise since we were warned that we may have to walk miles. We thought that it was because the actual race was on the 16th that there wouldn’t be so many people.

We wandered through town, got a bite to eat, had some gelato, all at a leisurely pace. We had a drink in the center plaza where the race was to be held and then went out to stake out our spot from which to watch the practice race.

The race is between (among?) 10 of the 17 Contradas or neighborhoods in Siena. They compete for the 10 slots, And it is a big deal. They all have their own flags and songs and a lot of contrada pride.
At this point let it be said that we chose our position…poorly. Having never experienced the spectacle before, we chose a position near one of the openings. Not a wise move. But we defended our position to the end. Well, almost…a large contingent of young men from one of the contradas “put the gate into position” and literally shoved everyone in their way out of their way. Little did they know they were dealing with the Belmont Shore Babes and we put up a good shove right back. We only lost about 3 feet but I thought we were going to lose Arleen. Luckily, we befriended one of them and got away relatively unscathed, except for maybe a little of our pride.

There was a lot of pageantry prior to the start of the race. Contradas marching in with lots of singing and flag waving, it was fun to watch.

Apparently “our” horse won the practice round and we walked out with the winning Conrada..and apparently THAT was a no-no as well as one of the old women.. I’ll refrain here from calling her a lady…was shaking her finger at us
(it was an acceptable finger) and yelling NO! NO! Oops! Well, you know what they say about pleasing everyone….

We then were feeling rather triumphant and decided on a glass of wine before our trip back to the Villa. We found a restaurant overlooking the soccer field for a (finally) relaxing and quiet well-earned glass of wine. All in all a successful day that none of us would have missed for anything!!

Day Four:

Arleen and Ashley were up early and off to Rome for a final day before Ashley’s trip home to the LBC. Dorth and I slept in til about…oh 2PM! I have never slept that late…EVER! Then a hectic day of laying by the pool, drinking wine, and reading. Great day!!

Day 5:
Well, never let it be said that I don’t know how to relax with another day of poolside lounging. I felt the need for some serious sun time. Don’t tell my dermatologist!!! But, aaahhh it sure felt fine!

Arleen returned and picked up Mary Coates along the way. So now we are four. A late afternoon run into San Casciano for strolling and dinner.

Ryan sent me a text a few days ago and since I haven’t had a signal at the villa, I just got it and he’s going to drive down tomorrow and meet us. I’m so excited to see my boy!!

Well, I’ll try once again to get to sleep. It’s about 4am and so far have been unable to let everything go. So, I decided this would be a great time to catch up, then maybe off to nana land. Buona Notte!!

Day 6:

Yay! Ryan is driving down to meet us. But he got caught in traffic and so did we, so we decided to meet in Lucca.

So here I was, standing in the Plaza in the middle of Lucca looking at antiques and this tall dark stranger comes up and kisses me…verbally ☺ Lo and behold, Ryan has found me in the middle of the city. What a cutie patootie!! We rented bikes and rode around the wall of the city and had gelato and generally had a fabulous time. Luckily, Mary’s luggage, which had been lost, was found and delivered to the Villa while we were out. We had to have a couple of glasses of wine in order to coordinate the drop off but a little Italian here a little pointy talky there and all was a fait accomplis.

After all was done in Lucca we headed west to Torre del Lago Puccini. Unfortunately, we headed via Viareggio which was about 10 miles out of the way. But we arrived at this beautiful location on a lake, which is the place where they have this Puccini Festival and an Opera of his is performed every night during the festival. We didn’t have tickets but we stayed in town and had dinner on the deck of a restaurant and listened to the opera Tosca while we had dinner. Lovely! The restaurant called Ristorante Chalet del Lago sat on the edge of this fabulous lake Puccini or Massaciuccoli, we’re not quite sure of the name. It was very crowded before the Opera so we had to wait. The restaurant emptied out at about 8:45 and it took the waiters and busboys about 45 minutes to reset the 8 tables for the late diners. Ah well, it is Italia!! We couldn’t quite figure out what had taken them so long….there was much discussion on the subject and then there was more and then there was more….enough already. A little wine was needed…well, maybe a lot, but, I was driving. We had a lovely dinner and listened to the opera while we dined.

I had my own private photographer with me for your pleasure!

Then, we headed back to the Villa in Montespertoli and hit the rack. Ryan stayed the night and we got up earlier than the rest and had coffee and talked. I sure enjoyed just talking. We haven’t had a lot of opportunity to do that. I’ll get more chat time next weekend when Dorth and I head to Budoia.

Day 7:

We got a late start to Volterra. With very windy roads and bellisimo views, we happened to hit it just right again. There was a 1398 Festival going on the day we arrived. Similar to our Rennaisance Faire, everyone was in Medieval attire and there were booths and demonstrations of food and games and crafts, etc. There were strolling musicians and one of my favorites had bagpipes and flutes...very cool. In addition, all the shops were open and it was a FABULOUS Etruscan hill town. I am amazed at the number of people walking around, eating, drinking, generally having a great time….yet, there was no trash on the ground. I think we need to learn a lesson here. But, how do we educate the masses at home??? Not an example of history repeating itself.

One of the fabulous things about Volterra was the alabaster. We checked out quite a bit and bought a little. Beautiful stuff!! But heavy, so I didn’t want to carry it home.

Just before leaving, we realized we hadn’t seen the Roman ruins. So up the hill we went….again.

The Roman theater had been built in 10BC and remained in use as a theater until 4BC when they abandoned the theater and used some of the stones to build fancy baths. Eventually, they were abandoned and it was used as a town dump. I guess there were idiots in all periods of time. At some point in time, the ruins were rediscovered and uncovered. They were amazing.

We came home to wine, fruit and cheese. A wonderful ending to an exhausting but fabulous day!!

Day 8:

We had really ambitious plans for the next two days. We decided to spend the night somewhere instead of making the long drive back and then down again in the morning. On the way to Pienza, our first stop, we stopped for coffee and met an expat English woman who had been a travel guide for 10 years. She gave us quite a few hints and tips for our journey and for the most part they were good.

Pienza, what can I say....another beautiful “hill town” in Tuscany. It had a huge build-up because Bertini apparently designed this “perfect” square in the town. What can I say, I think the square was oversold, but the town was beautiful. Another successful buying spree was topped off with our purchases of pecorino cheese. Yummy!!

Our next stop was Montepulciano. This was truly a hill town. We walked to the top of town and the sights were spectacular. The weather decided to put on a show for us. Clouds blew in, rain and thunder and lightening and about 20 minutes later it cleared up and was sunny yet again. Gotta love this place.

Our final stop of the day was Spello. This place came highly recommended from our English guide. It is a darling little place, another true hill town. We found a lovely hotel. A little more than Dorth or I would normally spend but a little splurging here and there won’t hurt. Beautiful fresco paintings covered the walls and we had a fabulous dinner down the way.

baby steps...

2007-08-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

my first foray into the world of blogs. kinda scary yet somehow liberating...i am always the cheerleader to get others started...
you can do it!!
you'll be great!!
it'll be so much fun!!
step out of your comfort zone...
expand your parameters....
life is too short...
seize the day!!

yikes!

you mean me??

so here i am, tiptoeing through cyberspace to wiggle my toes in the sea of words out there. wiggle, wiggle, splash, splash, whoopee! i am drenched in the possibilities....aaahhh....nice