The Tune's

The Road to Hana

2009-11-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

The road to hana, also known as the Hana Highway, is a 68 mile long stretch of winding, curving roads that have about 600 curves and 50 bridges (most of which are one-lane). Scott and I ventured off to tackle this 68 mile road on our first full day in Maui.

The top came down off of our Jeep Wrangler, the sun was shining and snacks were packed for the day long journey.

The start of the Hana Highway!

The promosing look of another gorgeous day!

Stop number one, a smal roadside stand for a fresh made fruit smoothie!!!! YUMMY! Scott is trying to make his selection of what flavors to add together.

A view from the Huelo Lookout...isn't that beautiful.

A view of the road ahead. This was the standard for the whole road (basically 50 miles) until you reach Hana.

Some views along the way

The beautiful waterfalls along the way that you can stop and take a dip in.

Since we set-off at 8am and were not a bit famished for some food we stopped at another roadside stand and split this AMAZING pulled pork taco. Not just any taco but a Hawaiian style taca which was yummy!

The proof we made it to Hana! Although there isn't much to see in Hana there is past Hana if you are daring enough to go the extra distance.

On the next few miles here are some shots along the way. Scott took a dip in this waterfall and it was CHILLY.

About 8 miles past Hana is the 7 pools. It is numerous waterfalls that make 7 pools and eventually lead to the ocean. This is the lower half of the 7 pools.

A view from a bridge looking to the top of the 7 pools and the bottom (2nd picture)

We left the 7 pools and headed a bit further down the road to find the hidden grave of Charles A. Lindbergh. He is buried at a small church off of the beaten path. Here is the sign that is the landmark of where to turn for his grave.

The Palapala Ho'Omau Congregational Church:

This is the view from his grave.

A beautiful Banyan tree at the church.

Random pictures along the rest of the way up/down from Hana:

I know my family will enjoy this next picture. There are Cheeseheads on the Road to Hana!!!! GO PACK GO!

A beautiful black sand beach that you can drive down to and go swimming at.

We left at 8am and got back to the hotel at 5pm. It is a long day of driving but you do stop alot to see the waterfalls, go hiking, stop at roadside stands and swimming. Well worth the trip and if you do plan on going I recommend a convertible since you get to see so many nice views out the top!

For the love of the game

2009-11-06T07:29:00.000-08:00

It is amazing with every passing season a new sport starts and while I love this, since I am a sports fan, I find it tough to get into the start of a new season when one is just ending. For example, my beloved Yankees were in the Wrold Series, as yes they did win number 27, but hockey season started a little while ago and I haven't been able to "get into it" like I typically do since my heart was hoping that the Yanks would do it. Now that the Baseball season is officially ending today (with a Ticker Tape Parade), I can turn my attention to the sport that I literally grew up with.

When I was born, I was virtually born at a skating rink and not the ones you see on TV today but the good 'ole outdoor, parents shoveling the ice ones. I was born in Canada and my brother was 2 1/2 at the time and was a hockey player. We were at the rink every weekend watching him play. We then moved to Minnesota, Burnsville to be exact, and lived across the street from a pond and as Minnesota winters go the pond is frozen for quite some time. I guess as nature intended if I was going to spend that much time at the ice rink I might as well become a figure skater right? right! There we are the Flaten family all at the Ice Rink, my brother in his hockey pads and me in my skating outfits. So during those long Minnesota winters we would head to the pond for some skating which was great as there were a lot of kids our age on the street and a few Minnesota North Stars also!!!!! What is better than that??? We went to North Star games while living in Minnesota and became friends with Dino Ciccarelli, Neal Broten, Brain Bellows and Don Beaupre (since they were neighbors). Life was great!!!

We eventually moved to NJ and the North Stars went to Dallas. I had decided to leave them as "My Team" and try to find a new team. My parents bought season tickets to the Devils and we had been going as a family of 4 for about 10 years. We got to see Lord Stanley, meet and skate with the players and eventually call them "My New Team"

Let's jump to today. My brother and I are heading back to the rink but not for either of us to go skating but to go to one of those nice rinks this time, indoors, new and comfy. We are going to see our team the NJ Devils tonight!!!!! I love this game!!!

We are back.

2009-11-02T10:28:00.000-08:00

We got back from Hawaii yesterday morning and got caught up on loads of mail, laundry, etc. Will post pics of the trip later tonight but will leave you with a text I got this am from Scott about vacation.

"You know u had a good vaca when ur work pants don't fit in the morning, ur waiting for the waiter to bring u ur coffee and then be lazy the rest of the day"....that should about sum up our vacation!

Aloha

2009-10-22T18:49:00.001-07:00

We are off to Hawaii for some R&R. We will return with lots of photos on Nov. 1st

Counting the days

2009-10-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend has come and gone with a blur and most likely due to the Hunt yesterday. The Hunt is a day filled with drinking and nothing but drinking, eventhough there is a horse race taking place around you, you really would have no idea. Every year it is always questionable as to what the weather decides to do and this year it was in the 40's and rainy in the am but cleared out nicely towards midday.

The tent area that we have every year is in the prime location for people watching. It is funny to see people get so dressed up when the field is covered in mud....I mean would you seriously wear stilettos to a horserace in the mud? In Jersey I guess they do, but that is what makes the day so much better since you get to watch them all fall in the mud when the get drunk. We were watching these 2 girls (one sober and the other drunk) and they were arm in arm walking through the mud and the drunk one got stuck and took her friend down with her in the mud...the best part was that she was wearing a white North Face fleece jacket. I mean come on people, mud + rain = NOT A FASHION SHOW.

On the way home from the Hunt to my best friends house something happened to my phone that my LCD screen cracked which made me make my way to Verizon today to get a new phone. Luckily the guy gave me a one time courtesy phone so that I wasn't paying $200 + for a new phone!!! Thank you Verizon Guy!

I sit on the couch now watching the Giants vs. Saints game and cheer on my Green Bay Packers and they kick Detroits butt and am waiting to cheer on the Bills this afternoon as they take on the NY Jets. In better news is that the Yanks are up 2-0 vs. LA Angels!!!!!! Wooot Wooot!!!1 LETS GO YANKEES TOMORROW!!!!!!!

The rest of the day will be starting to get the suitcases down from the attic and start getting things set aside for going to Hawaii on Friday! I can't wait to get out of this cold weather that we are getting here and into the warmth of Hawaii. Macadamia Nuts here I come!

Three Short Years

2009-10-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Three short years ago at this time I was sitting in the hair salon with my 5 bridesmaids all getting our hair done for the 3 o'clock ceremony. When we woke up in the morning it was a bit chilly and I was starting to wonder if we would all be too cold standing outside for pictures, but as luck would have it it was a beautiful fall day! Clear skies with a few lovely fluffy clouds, mid 70's and the beautiful changing of the leaves on the trees.

I still though can't believe that three years has flown by this quickly. This past year we went to South Africa for 10 days with my Parents, moved home to the US, moved back into our house after major renovations, both found new jobs and spent lots of time with family and friends trying to catch-up on lost time living overseas.

This year what's in store for us? Well we are off to Hawaii in 2 weeks to celebrate our Anniversary and Scott's birthday and planning a trip with our friends in London to go Sailing around Croatia next September for a week!

Happy 3rd Anniversary Dear! I love you with all my heart and can't believe that we have been married for three years already. I am looking forward to what is in store next and cherish our time together!

Love to a Best Friend! Love, your wife

You know it is fall when...

2009-10-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

you get up on a sunny Sunday and go to the Cider Mill for some Cider and Cider donuts!

Fall is my favorite season. I love the crisp morning air, the colors of fall, watching the trees change all of the beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow and purples. It also brings on the start of the NFL season, NHL season and the MLB playoffs! It is a busy time of year of TV with all of the Season Premiere's coming on. Who wouldn't like fall???

Here are some photos from our day at the Mill:

Then probably one of the greater things to do at the mill was the Pumpkin Slingshot. If you got the pumpkin in one of the buckets out in the field then you won a free pumpkin of your choice. We unfortunetly did not walk away with a free pumpkin but we did buy two for the house for carving!

Bain of my existence

2009-09-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

It seems that every weekend and some weekday nights we are getting in from work, changing and walking down 2 flights of stairs and becoming slaves to this thing that is called home ownership. This has been going on for some time now and although we have seen drastic changes, the end is not even in sight yet and won't be for some time (unless we wanted to hire someone to do it for us).

We have made progress though on our gutted sqaure shaped basement and have studed, drywalled, laid flooring and painted 2 new rooms (one is a laundry room and one is a workout room). There is progress! Last night was a challenge though and this weekend will be too. We laid the rubber gym matting and that is a bear to get to fit perfectly together without their being any raised joints. We laid some weights on those areas last night and are hoping that with a little time that they will stay down, otherwise we are unsure what to do.

We have lots of work to do and have set ourselves a deadline of Thanksgiving to have the whole basement finished! That will be interesting to meet with a 10 day trip to Hawaii, a wedding coming up, and the Hunt (a horse race...booze fest) all before the end of October. We have a little work to do on the two rooms that we started (one electrical outlet in the laundry room needs to be wired in to the fuse box, base trim needs to be put down once we finish the flooring in the workout room). Then it is on to the major room (to be a 2nd family room/den) and then Scott's workshop. It is not an easy feat but I am sure we will come in close to our deadline.

I will post some pictures this weekend once the first two rooms are completed! Wish us luck and hopefully someday we will not be slaves to our house.

Don't you just love these

2009-09-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

I was at Bloomie's yesterday and was hunting these babies down only to find out they aren't out yet but you can of course "pre-order" them. I got two pairs of Tory Burch shoes for my birthday from my parents but wanted something a little bit different and my mom said, go look at these then. Lone behold she was right!

I will be patiently waiting for them to arrive sometime soon!

Wonderful Weekend

2009-09-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

It was a wonderful weekend filled with a farewell dinner for a neighbor's daughter on Friday night. She is off to her first year of college and is attending the University of Delaware. She was very excited to be leaving in the am but the emotional rush was sinking in that this is it, I am leaving for college, getting away from home. She will do wonderful things and is in their nursing program. All the best this year Lexi! Looking forward to seeing you at Christmas!

Saturday my best friend and I went up to the Woodbury Commons, just over the NJ/BY border in Rockland County and walked around shopping for about 5 hours. After a few bags in our hands it was time to leave. We stopped at Home Goods on the way home, love this store, and I bought a new cabinet for our dining room! I have been looking for some time now and found one that works! Scott and I then went to pick it up on Saturday night then went to dinner. After we got home we moved it into the house and then it was time to start getting things put into it!!!!

Sunday we were up early and Scott went out and got breakfast for my birthday! He cut the lawn and did some stuff around the house. I got some things ready for dinner on Sunday night. 11 people came over for dinner and we had some fantastic ribs, corn on the cob, cheesy potatoes, salad and then dirt cake. I am sorry now that I didn't get a picture but there is none left so you can imagine that it was good! Thanks Bren!

I was exhausted on Sunday night and didn't get a ton of sleep and then Monday night we had the Fantasy Football draft. It started at 9pm and went till 11 something. I was tired yesterday but am good today.

Thank you again to all for the Birthday wishes, cards and gifts! It was a wonderful birthday!

It must mean Dirt Cake!

2009-08-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up it was tradition for me to have a pool party for every birthday. It was tradition because my birthday always fell on or near Labor Day which meant the start of the school year. I was fortunate that my parents had a pool and so there were always about 30 people coming to my birthday party. It got into the same tradition for many years and everyone loved coming especially for my mom's special birthday cake, Dirt Cake! It is made in a flower pot, flowers, a garden spade and gummy worms. Everyone loved it and so she made it every year until I think I left for college.

On sunday this weekend we are having some people over for a BBQ Birthday Celebration! I am turning the young age of 31 on Sunday! I sent out an email to my friends to come over for dinner and one of my friends rights back "Mmmmm, sounds good. I'll be there. P.S. you are turning 13 not 31..." my reply was "If I were turning 13 I would be having dirt cake for my birthday cake!" to his reply of "You want it??? I can make it!". So I guess it is only fitting that now we are back in New Jersey for my birthday and I will be having Dirt Cake for my Birthday Cake!!!

Here is a picture of a Dirt Cake (someone else's) in case you have never seen one. I will post some pictures of my birthday cake on Sunday!

Here is to turning 13 again and having the greatest family and friends!

This Dress

2009-08-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

There is always one thing I hate about preparing for an event...finding the perfect outfit. The dreaded racks and racks of countless dresses that either don't fit, are too short, are wrong material, are not dressy enough, are too dressy or they just don't have your size in the one that you like and want.

This weekend we are off to wedding number 2 (out of 3) and it is a beach wedding. Well not a "beach" wedding but it is at the Jersey Shore and a beach theme. A few weekends ago I wore a coral dress shown below that is silk and can be dressed up or down, but was unsure if I really wanted to wear it to this wedding not because I just wore it, but because I didn't know if it would be too casual looking. I don't really care that I just wore it since noone at the last wedding will be at this wedding. I love the color of it and think it is perfect for a "beach" wedding. Of course I had to go to the mall and take a look at what might be in store for me besides the coral dress.

This is what I found. It is a Jones of New York, tealish color, with a jeweled detail.

What do all of you ladies think??? What do I wear??? The service starts at 6pm with a Formal Reception to follow.

I also need some new shoes for either dress so please post some links for me!!

FRIDAY!!

2009-08-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

Thank god it is Friday! This week with the close has dragged on and on. I am looking forward to dinner tonight with my hubby, best friend and another friend at a Taverne in Summit! The food looks delicious and think I may have to get the mussels looking at the menu.

On the radar for the weekend is the basement. Tomorrow we are going to attempt, I preface that by attemp, to nail in the studs into our frame we built for the workout room. Once we get that done, Scott is going to do the electrical wires(run the wires through the studs at the the boxes for where we want them) and then my dad is going to come over on Sunday and help up get them into the circuit breaker!

Then we should be ready for next weekend when my 2nd parents come down to help drywall. I am leaving that to the Tune men, the Tune ladies will enjoy other festivities...to be decided.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Weekend

2009-08-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was pretty mellow which was a nice change. Friday night we went through Scott's boxes of files & childhood memorabilia and got those all put away. We had brought home about 5 boxes full from our trip to Buffalo a few weeks ago but haven't had the chance to go through them since well we have been busy.

Saturday we woke up and Scott went for a haircut so I started on breakfast. The mission was to make the Captain Crunch French Toast like we had had at Blue Moon in Baltimore that I posted about here . Tell me what you think in resemblance?

My customers in the house thought it was damn good so I guess that was what I was looking for.

After breakfast was over we set out to run a few errands before we needed to head up to Westchester County for a friends wedding. We arrived at the reception hall on a beautiful HOT afternoon and the reception hall is on the long island sound so was nice to look out on to the water. It was great getting to catch-up with college friends at the wedding and needless to say we were spent by the time we got home after midnight.

Sunday we slept in till 10:30!!!! We then went to my parents and picked up an extra car since I needed to get my car looked at for a few things. We have been delaying a project, our basement, since we moved in but the time has come and we are in full gear today. We spent the afternoon with an nail air gun in the basement putting up a frame for a workout room (1st room we will finish). We got the three bottom bases in and 2 uppers (need Ryan's help for the 3rd). The goal is to have all of the framing done by Monday and then the studs nailed in by Thursday this week. Wish us luck!

P.S.- yes I did get my hair cut (well chopped) this is it!

Good News Friday!

2009-07-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

I am sure most of my avid readers have known that since moving back from the UK the company I was working with over there laid me off once we made the decision to come back home. Nice.

Leaving that all behind, I was made an offer to join up with my old CFO of that company and the former Controller of that company (they both moved on also). I accepted the offer and became a contractor for them. Over the past 7 months, I have been working for them and truly love being back with them. They are fantastic bosses and you learn a great deal from them. We have been in the discussion the whole time since working here about my FT employment opportunity, but needed to wait until an announcement was made. That announcement was that they were moving from the furthest northeastern tip of NJ to Princeton, NJ. That is about a 2 hour drive and for most of the employees they all live north of the current office in NY counties. The announcement was made and everyone has until August 17th to give their decision, but on Wed. this week I received my FT offer letter!!!!! A little negotiating back and forth and I am officially back as a FT employee as on Monday August 3rd!

This has been a bit of a headache for Scott and I since he was offered benefits, etc. at his job for us in February but we declined them since we were covered until the end of March with my old company and also was supposed to go FT with the new company April 1st. That all didn't pan out due to the announcement, but thankfully Scott and I didn't need to go to the doctor's in that time. With smiles on our faces now that we can go to the doctor, dentist and optrician, if need be, we can knowing that we only have a co-pay and not a full bill to pay out of our pocket!

Happy Friday!!!

Blue is the color, football is the game...

2009-07-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

This past Friday we loaded up my car with 5 adults and luggage and made the 3 hour trip to Baltimore to watch Chelsea take on AC Milan (unfortunately Beckham is not playing for them as much as I would have liked to see him though).

We started off the weekend with lunch at an Irish Pub which was full of Chelsea fans, Scott was in heaven, and a few buckets of beer! After our 6th comrade joined us (he drove down from Rochester) we headed back to the hotel to get prepped for the game. We decided there was no better way to go that at least slightly drunk...I mean the English are almost always drunk at games so why shouldn't we be??? 45 beers later I think we were well on our way.

A few pictures from the pre-game

Bill drinking from his Crunk cup (or bowl).

Brendan and Alex trying to investigate what the specimen stain is on the lounge chair.

We made our way to M&T bank Stadium (home of the Baltimore Ravens) and were not allowed in the Stadium yet so we had a few more beers (8).

Here is Bill with his loyal Man U fan that we found!!!!!!

Once inside we lined up for more beer (6) and then headed into our seats.

After the Chelsea win 2-1 vs. AC Milan, we went back to the Irish Pub and had yet another beer. I think our total after the end of the night was at least 72 beers between 6 of us. Needless to say, we really didn't need another beer after the game.

Saturday morning we were up (some of us) and headed out to look for a breakfast place. They are very hard to come by to say the least. If you live in Baltimore and would like to make a killing, open up a breakfast joint. You will make a killing doing it. We asked for some suggestions and got, Johnny Rockets (um no they do burgers), Panera (can get that any time so no thank you), Cheesecake Factory (they open at 11:30am and we are STARVING), restaurants with buffets (no thanks not what we were looking for) and the final suggestion Blue Moon Cafe. Sounds like a winner! We got the directions and were told it would be about 5 blocks from there......3 extra sets of directions and about 20 blocks later we were on the 1 hour wait list.

We all needed something to help the tummies after lots of drinking and so a few of us went to Whole Foods (we passed it along the way) and got some juice and coffee. On the way back the two sleepy heads met us and within 10 minutes of getting back we were seated.

The inside of the place:

Our waitress came over and told us the specials, Captain Crunch french toast, crab, spinach, feta omelet and a herb omelet. What was that first one again? Oh that is our special that we were on the Food Network for.....say that again. We will take one of those to start! Would you like a Cinnamon Roll? Why wouldn't we!

Captain Crunch French Toast. As seen on Diners/Drive-ins/Dives on the Food Network.

It was to DIE FOR!

Above is my Crab, Spinach and Feta Omelet with has browns!

This was Bill's Mexican eggs with Chorizo, tortilla and hash browns. The other dishes were just as yummy and I would highly recommend that if you are in Baltimore you check out the Blue Moon Cafe!

We all needed to get wheeled out of here since we were stuffed, but decided that it was best to take a slow walk back to the hotel, even though a taxi sounded great.

After a few stops along the way, we went to the hotel pool then played about 3 hours of tennis on the rooftop deck. Alex and I were victorious vs. Ryan and Bill.....after some very long matches.

We went to the Rusty Scupper for dinner, after we all joked about the name during the previous day and that morning. The food was fantastic, the wait staff could have been better, but the company was the best!

Sunday we headed back to NJ and went to bed early! It was a wonderful weekend with good food, good company, good soccer match and great entertainment (yellow dress girl)!

Who says we are in a recession?

2009-07-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

I know people are feeling the wrath of the economy and are number crunching trying to save pennies, but on the other side of the world there are people who are not feeling the effects of the economy at all.

I saw this photo yesterday and was thinking to myself, you have got to be kidding me. People actually spend loads of money to get their pet to look like this. This is like a new accessory for people. Instead of the fashionable handbag and shoes you now have a fashionable pet.

You can get your pet's hair dyed in a variety of rainbow colors (below). Can't you just picture Bailey as a Hot Pink Labrador?? Yeah Right.

Pet Hair Dye is the new thing??? It started in Japan and now is starting to take off more and more. While your pooch is at the salon getting a hair dye (it is pet friendly) they can get their nails done too. OPI has a Pawlish nail line out there for pet friendly nail polish. It comes is 6 colors (listed below).

OK, enough said. I had to post this though because I just couldn't believe my eyes.

Exhausted

2009-07-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

My best friend Katie and I headed to Las Vegas for a long weekend. Just a time to get away and have some R&R! It was a blazing 113 everyday!!!! Now that isn't bad considering it is dry desert heat right.....wrong. It was humid and hot which with that combination was UGLY.

We arrived on Wed morning bright and early and got checked in to Caeser's hotel. We didn't do too much but walk around, play some slots and lay by the pool. We were a bit tired.

Paris Paris Hotel

Bellagio on the left and Caeser's in the background.

The new Hard Rock Cafe is coming to the strip. The hotel is off the strip for the Hard Rock but I guess they figure that they can make more money with having another restaurant on the strip. I think the guitar on the outside looks pretty cool!

On Thursday we spent the day at the pool and then headed over to the New York New York. We went to the dualing piano bar and sat down for a few hours and a few Miller Lites and Lienenkugels! After a few hours of singing and drinking we were a bit on the tipsy side. What better way to get rid of that than to go eat at P.F. Changs!

On Friday we hung out at the pool all day and then headed up to the room to get ready to go see LOVE (a Cirque du Soleil show). It is based on The Beatles and was FANTASTIC! It is a must see and I would go again!!!! The choreography was wonderful and a wonderful show.

After the show we went to Joe's for a wonderful dinner and a fantastic Banana Cream Pie with candied walnuts and fosters sauce (my mouth is watering thinking about it)!

Saturday was another day at the pool and a lot of drinks. It was blazing hot that you couldn't even sit outside the pool for more than 5 minutes. We had quite a few drinks there that by the time we left I think we had had enough drinks for the whole night too. We went back down to the NY NY for the dualing pianos and some Mexican food.

A few night shots of the strip.

Sunday was up early for our flight back.

Katie won some, I lost some but all in all it was a great trip. Got a bit of color (not so pasty white as my brother used to call me while living in England) and now I need to catch up on some sleep!

Viva Las Vegas

2009-07-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

We have been busy (well not that busy) but went to Buffalo this weekend to surprise my in-laws and now I am off to Las Vegas with my best friend for a little R&R! Looking forward to warm weather and some days away from work! Wish me luck winning some money.

VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!

The Joys of Being a Home Owner

2009-06-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

I remember vividly the days when I was looking forward to buying my first place. The excitement of decorating it and fixing it to my style and liking. After living in London for 3 years in a rental where you can't really do to much except sit and stair at plain white walls in EVERY room we were excited to move home to color.

This morning I woke up and made breakfast, took a shower and went to the basement to throw a load of laundry on. When I opened up the basement door I quickly realized one of the downfalls to home ownership, we had a flooded basement. Yes I know some of you are saying, hold on you just re-did your whole house. Yes we did and there were no issues with that. The issue was the damn sump pump. It was being slightly caught up on its cover (code for the town so people can't fall in it) and therefore wasn't going on. After I starred for 5 seconds at the water, I said to Scott, "We have a flood". We walked downstairs to 4 inches of water. Lukily we don't have much in the basement since we are going to finish the basement and lukily the workshop didn't get any water in it, but I was not looking forward to the next few hours since I was just going to put a load of laundry in and then head out to the Short Hills mall. I guess that will have to wait for another day now.

Oh the joys of home ownership! I am sure there is something good that I can blog about another day, but today I hate owning a house.

2 years

2009-05-22T08:05:00.001-07:00

2 years ago today our little baby girl was born! While at the time we didn't know we would be buying a dog (we were in Italy actually), we were in discussions about getting a dog. We knew we wanted a Chocolate Labrador and we wanted an "English" Chocolate Lab. We searched high and low and got a recommendation through the Kennel Club, rented a car and drove up to Newcastle for the weekend. On Sunday morning, we picked up our little girl and it has been history ever since.

A little walk through 2 years of life with Bailey:

First day "home" with us. She is 7 weeks old here.

8 1/2 weeks old here

10 weeks old and first day of puppy daycare (aat http://www.waggytales.com/) she loved her year there!

6 months old and wearing dad's tie....she is a daddy's girl. 2nd photo of her at daycare in the field they ran in in Richmond.

8 1/2 months old. At the park in Chiswick, London after enjoying playing with a soccer ball.

And here she is on Monday (not the best photo)

alma mater

2009-05-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

I would start to sing the Iona Alma mater song but I don't know the words even though I have had 9 years to memorize it, yeah right.

This past weekend was packed with events with my in-laws down from Buffalo and also Scott's Aunt Judy. The most important event though of the weekend was GRADUATION!!!! My brother-in-law Ryan graduated from Iona College in New Rochelle, NY on Sunday. Commencement was held at Madison Square Garden in the WaMu Theater (or should it be Chase Theater now??). The procession was led by the President of the College and the educational procession. After all the graduates to-be processioned in, the Iona College Bagpipe band marched in, the highlight of the ceremony in my opinion.

Here are some pictures from graduation...not many since they came out dark or blurry.

On Saturday, my in-laws, Aunt Judy, Scott and I went to the city to walk around and enjoy the sights. Here is the only picture I have.

We then headed up to Iona for Graduation Mass. Ryan was a gift bearer which was "bricks". The bricks resemble expansion of the college.

Here are some other misc pictures from the weekend:

Congratulations Ryan! May the next Chapter in your life be a successful, prosperous and enjoyable one!

There is this woman

2009-05-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

I have started coming at night to this woman at my house. She is a complete and utter rude bitch. She sits there and yells at me for 45 minutes and rarely tells me anything nice. I don't know sometimes how I do it, but each night I continue to get myself into this mess.

Yes I am talking about Jillian Michael's Boot Camp for Wii. It is intense and the next day I can't walk but it feels great! Hopefully this along with walking the dog, going for a run and having Lean Cuisine will help me jump start my weight loss goal.

Here is to her awful voice yelling at me to keep it up and the rare "Good Job". My body feels the pain and hopefully the results will start to show in a few weeks.

A new me

2009-04-30T06:26:00.000-07:00

Today I am making a pledge to myself. I am at my highest weight I have ever been at in my life and I hate it. I can't fit in some clothes and it drives me nuts every morning when I go in the closet to find something to wear to work. I only have like 4 pairs of pants that fit and 2 skirts so you can imagine that doesn't get fun and with that I REFUSE to buy new clothes.

I, Libby, pledge that I am going to start running 5 days a week and will allow Jillian Michael's Boot Camp to kick my ass 5 days a week. I will choose heathier options for eating and will no longer be a fat lazy ass every day. My goal is to drop a total of 39 lbs. and my first goal is to drop 15-20lbs by June 6th. The rest of the goal it to loose it by the end of the summer. That is an average of 3 lbs a week which I think in the beginning is gonna be ok but will get tough in the end.

So say goodbye to the old Libby and a slow hello to the new one!

Call me...

2009-04-24T08:23:00.001-07:00

Tina Taylor the tool woman!

In our spare bath upstairs we never had our contractor put in shower doors since at the time we were on a strict budget and the renovations were costing us enough that we figured we could do it later down the road. That time has come now, only a month in the house, with guests coming to visit on Saturday. We had guests stay over already, my brother and my brother-in-law but they just used the master bath. There is a bar for a shower curtain but I am not really a fan of them so refused to waste money to buy one just for guests this weekend (which happen to be my in-laws).

On Wed after work I set off to Home Depot while waiting for Scott to get home. When I arrived back home with the shower doors, silicone and drill bits to go through tile, I was off on a mission to get them installed by the end of the night. Scott thought this was going to be great so grabbed a beer popped the top off and sat on the couch to watch some hockey.

Starting time: 6pm

Everything started off good, all the parts were in the box! I lined up the bottom rail and it fit perfectly on the bottom however then reading I needed to saw off 1 1/4" so that the side wall jabs could fit on the bottom too. Time to run out to Sears Hardware for a saw now and a metal file.

Got home with that and it was time to start making dinner. I made a Whole Wheat pizza with Turkey pepperoni on it and put it on our pizza stone and let it bake away. Got the bottom rail cut and the side wall jabs up and marked the 6 holes where they would get attached to the side wall. Everything was going great, couldn't imagine why people don't do DYI more. Stopped to have dinner, except the pizza wouldn't come off of the stone. Scott headed out to the local pizzeria and got us pizza while I continued to work.

The instructions said to use a 3/16" drill bit for glass and ceramic tile and I had just that. My dad told me to put masking tape on the tile which would also help the tile from not cracking. So I drilled my 6 holes and there was no cracking! Next I needed to put in the wall anchors and those little devils would not fit so I used a 1/4" drill bit and made the holes larger. They still wouldn't fit and so I used the largest drill bit I had in that tile set which was a 5/16" and that seemed to do the trick. An hour later all of the wall anchors were in. Scott came up and helped me hold up the wall jabs while I screwed them in.

The rest was easy peasy.

And so may I present to you our new shower doors in the spare bathroom:

Here is the before:

The during:

The finished product:

The ending time: 10:45pm

I did all of the silicone work so that it would dry for our guests and so we are officially ready for company!!!!