Birthday blog

I promised that I'd post a pic of dinner for my birthday. We celebrated with (L-R) Jackie and Nick, Monica and Billy and ourselves.

We went out to Les Halles in downtown NYC (http://www.leshalles.net/ny_downtown.php). I was so psyched to be there - the Executive Chef is Anthony Bourdain. He has a TV show on the Travel Channel called (Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations) where he travels the world and checks out the food - I'm a total addict to this show. Love it. The food was fantastic. Certainly will take anyone there who comes to visit. Thanks Peter for recommending to Dad to take me there. Loved it. We had several cocktails, all 3 courses and then went out to club after. Rolled in at home around 2.30am.....see, I'm not old really:) Took all of Sunday to recover though....

So, in case you were wondering Nick and Jackie are our neighbours (the ones who lived with us earlier in the year), Monica is Billy's girlfriend, Billy is our trainer and friend. You can pick us out:)

I'm really looking forward to a week on holiday next week. We're going to bum around home - Trev has a job interview, have a couple of summer parties and generally laziness. We're going to explore the jersey shore and even get a trip into Six Flags Theme Park.

A new indulgence

I promise that I will post a birthday entry - I'm struggling with editing the pictures. Dory suggested using Adobe Photoshop Elements - so, I have my trial downloaded and last night was trying to fix red eye. It did an auto-red eye thing - the only problem is that for poor Trev he's got one fixed red eye....and one not. I've looked on help and it seems really clear on how to fix that - but can I find it on that applicable? Can I crap.... so, Dory if you read this can you pop me an emaiil and tell me how dumb i'm being and how to fix it...? Thanks!

Back to my new indulgence. We had a flashy pilates studio round the corner from us - and I had to admit while it looked lovely it was always empty. Last week I noticed it changed to Chi First - it's a Chinese massage parlour. They have another shop the other end of town and every time I've gone past on the bus I'd always wanted to try it. I didn't really need much of an excuse - I hurt my back last week and it's driving me crazy. I have gone through loads of Icy Hot patches and while they're good while they're on, they have fixed anything. I'm walking around like a little old lady - and to top it off my face allergy came back, so I look like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle again. How crap is that? One of the coolest things about this place is that it's $60 for an hour's massage. Not sure what it's like for you but that is really really really cheap - and i couldn't resist. Last night I went round, got an appointment - and oh my! All I can say is that I'll be a regular - Lisa the therapist was awesome. I did get a bit scared when she jumped on the table and stood on my lower back (you know...the bit that hurts) - but I do think I feel better. I can certainly move better - although still quite sore. I'm going to go and stretch at the gym tonight and see if that helps. i know I just don't want to fly to England with a bad back - if that doesn't work then it'll be a chiropractor next.

On a totally different topic, we broke down and bought the second sofa (can't remember if I said that) - so hopefully it'll be here in a few weeks. We just decided that no-one ever wants to sit on the leather chairs so it's really not fair. I think it'll look nice.

Our place is in a mess right now - we're having new tiles laid in the master bathroom as the others were so, so horrible. I can't believe our toilet is on the balcony....but I guess that's better than anywhere else:) They did a lot yesterday - they're part way complete. Hopefully by tomorrow it'll all be done!

Went and saw the Batman movie. I thought it was pretty good, although long. Certainly better than Hancock!

Rachel now has a confirmed date for her wedding - Saturday November 14th 2009....so let the planning begin!

OK, back to work...think that's it for now. I promise I'll post a pic or 2 from the weekend!

Thinking of Rach

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1038368/Here-comes-bargain-bride-In-2-50-bespoke-wedding-dress-bought-eBay.html

What a cool article. This woman got a made to measure gown for $5. Amazing eh? Gotta love the internet:)

Children or not children

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1038090/The-great-taboo-Why-childless-women-treated-like-second-class-citizens.html

An interesting article here from a woman who feels like a second class citizen because she doesn't have children. I don't have that feeling at all so I guess my take on it is a little different on a number of fronts:

As a child I never felt the urge to have a family. Ever. I played with dolls but it never felt like I wanted any of my own. Maybe it was because I fought tooth and nail with my brother - we're best buds now...but it was not like that when we were little. I have never understood the urge and even today while I think babies are cute I really don't feel the need to run up and cuddle it. At the same time I wasn't a particular tom boy - babies just didn't interest me.

I've thought for the longest time those feelings were mother nature's way of helping me with the fact that I couldn't have children. Having a hysterectomy at 31 I always wondered what would happen if I woke up one day with those maternal feelings. It freaked me out for a day or so back then, but then I rationalized it by telling myself I could always adopt one from China (or wherever...). As I approach 41 it hasn't happened yet. Maybe it will, maybe it won't - all I know is that if you raise teenagers then babies probably don't attract you.

Maybe I didn't have that urge because I met someone who had 3 kids already and they needed a mother figure. I can't imagine loving a child I'd given birth to any more than I do those 3 so maybe I have my kids already - just not the usual way. They're all grown up now - but I do remember being holed up in Cedar Rapids (don't worry - we grew to love it!!) wondering how on earth I was going to survive looking after opinionated teenagers while their Dad was off on business. Today I'm still proud of the fact that no matter how difficult it got they never, ever once told me "you're not my mother". We worked it out the old fashioned way - talking, arguing, agreeing - oh yeah and the regular hug and "I love you". We all came out the other end and they're all independent and successful, each in their different ways. I'd like to think that I had something to do with that.

A lot of that came from my own upbringing. While I might argue my parents were too strict. they instilled a lot of good values that I used. Eating together every day at a table with the TV off talking about things that happened that day. I do think the fact that I gave up my job for a few years to become "mum" helped - I did a lot of cleaning, laundry and cooking in those day.....still can't believe I did it - but hey, what else are you going to do? I'm really not a housewife at all.... I guess I treated it as a job in a weird kind of way - and I guess it was. Seemed to work though. Even though we're now spread out over 4 states we all talk/email/instant message frequently about stuff. Sometimes it's for a reason, but usually it's just a hi. We also try and get together at least a few times a year.

What I learnt from being part of that family was how to interact with my own....Mum, Dad, Tim and I are closer now than we ever have been. I've never doubted how we feel about each other - we're close without smothering each other. It's cool. Now I'm in NYC it's even better as I'm getting back more frequently than ever and like the last few months when I wanted to be back for Mum's surgery I could work remotely. I have such a great family. I'm blessed.

So, back to the article - why does this woman feel like a second class citizen? And why does she feel you can't be a mother unless you give birth? I guess I just don't get it.

Now, remember boys...

....use the toilet. If you don't you could end up like this polish fella.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1453527.ece

Ankle and other stories

So, it's been 5 days since I've not had the bootie, and I've been in sneakers. While it aches quite a lot I don't have much of a limp any more - yippee! I think....it's getting better! Get the flags out, let's have a par-teh:) I'm really really hoping that it will continue to get better. If the aching would go away I'd be in heaven.

My only bad thing is that I'm wearing sneakers around at work - never before have I felt that I need to stick a post-it note on my toes with a "doctor's orders" sign. I keep getting those eye rolling looks of disgust, but feel very silly saying "the doctor told me to do this". I will probably give in and go get proper lace up shoes - I know, I'll look like Mary Poppins, but hey you gotta do what ya gotta do.

I'm also excited - for the first time in 10 days I dared get on the scales....and I'm below where I was when i went to England. Not at my lowest this year by 2lb, but still - I lost it! Anyway, more of that on the other blog.

Oh yeah, and we love our green sofa so much we bought another one to go with it. It'll look better than those leather chairs. They are soooo bedroom chairs. It's not the nicest sofa to look at in the pictures....but trust me when I say this - from a sitting down and relaxing perspective it's freaking awesome. So excited about that.

Talking of sofas, remember last week when I told you that Trev spilt a hot chocolate all over the sofa? Well, we tried cleaning it, that didn't work - so we took the cushions (and my down throw) over to our fabulous cleaner across the street. I'm not saying it was a cheap trip, but they got the pillows clean - they look great. It took them 4 days, but it's all good. Now, had Trev told me that the down throw alone was going to cost $80 I would have tossed it - esp as I think I only paid a max of about $20 for it. Oh well....not much i can do now.

On the ebay/craigslist project i've been pretty successful. I sold the last cream chair and ottoman at the weekend, have sold a number of printer cartridges, cables, picture frames etc so very happy. Still have a lot to go, but our usual plan is to either give it away or toss it. Here's the total money made so far:

$375 Sofa
$125 Chair & Ottoman
$125 Chair & Ottoman
$325 Washer & Dryer
$150 2 IKEA Red Chairs
$30 Printer cartridges
$15 IKEA frames
$10 Cable
$15 Cable

Total: $1170. Not bad eh?

I still have the fridge to go as a big ticket item, then I've lots of other smaller stuff that's either on ebay or craigslist (or both).

Last thing - the rhubarb. Leaps and bounds. We water it every night - we now have 6 new stalks. Yippee!

Rhubarb progress

I'm soooooo excited - check out the rhubarb. After less than two weeks we have four new stalks. So while some of them the original stalks died we have new ones.

I can't wait to eat our home grown rhubarb. If this goes well I may just have to grow green (runner) beans.

How cool is this?

Frying our brains...

Check this out. Thanks Nikki for sending this one over. Quite scary when you think about it. Might have to try it out for myself though:)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5odhh_pop-corn-telephone-portable-microon

When I'm 63...

....I want to look like this:) Not gonna happen, but I can dream....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1035786/Why-Helen-Mirren-sexy-sixties-role-model-growing-old-gracefully.html

Bye bye bootie....but

Had another appointment at the ankle doctor yesterday to get the results of my MRI I had last weekend. The good news is that I didn't break anything, the bad news is that I tore a few ligaments. So my ATF (Anterior talofibular) and some other "..bular" was torn and now it's trying to heal - and there's scar tissue.

The deal is that I wear trainers (ie sneakers) for a month keeping the ankle wrapped. I minimize walking and sitting/standing (apparently that aggravates it) as much as possible. If that doesn't work then I need surgery to repair it.....aaaaggghhhhh

So, no spin classes, no squats when working out with Billy, and I have to walk really really slowly. It sucks.

I go back on August 7th, right before I leave for England for the results. So, I'm looking after myself - I'm not moving too much and hoping against hope I don't need surgery. Wish me luck!

Flipping Budget can sit and swivel!

Knew it!

I always thought that women have a more positive outlook than men - here's an article that proves it!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1035579/Women-happier-men-better-quality-life-older-study-finds.html

New one word meme

This one is from Penny...so here goesNew one-word MEME
This is definitely a challenge to try-- You can only type
One Word!
Not as easy as you might think. Now copy or forward, change
the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one
word answers.
You can only type one word. Send it to 7 people including
the person that sent it to you:


1. Where is your cell phone? desk
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair? blond
4. Your mother? home
5. Your father? home
6. Your favorite thing? ipod
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? security
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? gym
11. Your fear? health
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? beach
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. What you're not? thin
15. Muffins? ok
16. One of your wish list items? marathon
17. Where you grew up? England
18. The last thing you did? eat
19. What are you wearing? pants/twinset
20. Your TV? fabulous!
21. Your pets? none
22. Your computer? Thinkpad
23. Your life? good
24. Your mood? excited
25. Missing someone? Always
26. Your car? Pontiac G6 Convertible (as of this evening!)
27 Something you're not wearing? socks
28. Favorite store? overstock.com
29 Your Summer? quick
30. Love someone? yes
31. Your favorite color? blue
32. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
33. Last time you cried? month ago
34. Who will resend this? Errrr....Carrieanne

New car

We bought a new car.....I can't believe we did this - the saving grace is the payment is $200 cheaper than the Lexus and it's sooooo cute. We literally sat in this car yesterday and knew within about 30 seconds this was the one for us. We even went and looked at other....and nothing compares.

http://wwww23.pontiac.com/g6-convertible/


What amazed me is that it's a convertible - you'd never know with the roof up. We're giving up a lot of space in the trunk but that's just tough. We also don't have GPS - we have to use onstar....no idea what that's like but we'll figure it out.

Soooooooo excited!

Play along

Thanks Carrieanne for sending this. Here are my answers.

Hit forward and place an X by all the things you've done and remove the X from the ones you have not. Answer the 30 questions at the end and send it to your friends (including me).

(X) Gone on a blind date
(X) Skipped school
() Watched someone die
() Gone to Canada
() Gone to Mexico
(X) Gone to Florida
(X) Gone on a plane
() Jumped out of a plane
(x ) Been on a Helicopter
(X) Gotten lost
(X) Gone on the opposite side of the country
(X) Gone to Washington, DC
(X) Swam in the ocean
(X) Cried yourself to sleep
( ) Played cops and robber
() Recently colored with crayons
(X) Sang Karaoke
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only?
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?
( ) Made prank phone calls
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(x ) Danced in the rain
(X) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(X) Gotten kissed under the mistletoe
() Watched the sunrise with someone you care about
(X) Blown bubbles
(X) Gone ice-skating
(X) Gone Skiing
( ) Gone skinny dipping outdoors
(X) Gone to the movies
( ) Gone to a drive-in movie

I want to know more about you....

1. Any nickname? In the old days, Fred - nothing recently (that I know if!)
2. Mother's name? Ruth
3. Favorite drink? Surfer on Acid
4. Tattoo? 0
5. Body Piercings? Yes, 2
6. How much do you love your job? A lot - most of the time
7. Birthplace? Hemel Hempstead, England
8. Favorite vacation spot? Heron Island, Australia (check it out www.heronisland.com)
9. Ever been to Africa? No
10. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? Yes
11. Ever been on TV? Yes
12. Ever steal any traffic sign? No
13. Ever been in a car accident? Yes
14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? Today 4 door, tomorrow 2 door
15. Favorite salad dressing? Asian Sesame
16. Favorite pie? Apple and Blackberry
17. Favorite number? 7
18. Favorite movie? Rocky Horror
19. Favorite holiday? Christmas
20. Favorite dessert? Rhubarb crumble and custard
21. Favorite food? Sausages
22. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
23. What do you do to relax? Gym - it works out all the stress, then you feel great!
24. Favorite toothpaste? Sensodyne
25. Favorite smell? Fresh cut grass

28. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Thinner, thinking about retirement
29. Furthest place you will send this message? England
30. Who will respond to this the fastest? Penny

Venti hot chocolate no whip...

Flipping drink..... well, it was only a matter of time before the new sofa got christened. A shame it was with a kick ass, full hot chocolate!

Poor Trev fell asleep holding his drink of choice! We'll be taking the cushions to the cleaners tomorrow - I tried to clean them, but it's not worked so well.

Things for sale

We've had a blitz today - I have buckets of stuff up for sale on both ebay and craigslist

- arm chair and ottoman (last one!)
- dining room table and chairs (this has been hard to shift)
- Nintendo Gamecube and 2 controllers (no games)
- Bose wireless thingy for rear speakers
- Bose speaker stands (we now have ours on the wall)
- Playstation 2 controller
- Printer cartridges
- Cables, cables, cables (Trev had a spending spree...and we didn't use any of them)
- IKEA picture frames
- My Philips VOIP phone - we just don't use it, I have a headset for Skype
- Wireless converter for a PC (found it, totally unused....)
- refridgerator

And that's just for starters - can you believe that? It's soooo theraputic to chuck stuff away.

Trip to Melissa's

Last weekend for July 4th we went to Glastonbury, Connecticut to stay with Melissa. She has two beautiful dogs - Lily and Maggie. We didn't do too much for the weekend -hung out, shopped (of course!) and ate a lot. Check out the pics of the dogs - Lily is the black one, Maggie the other - the last one was Melissa and Trev digging up the rhubarb!

Belated Pictures

So...I did promise ages ago pictures of the apartment in all its glory. Now, bear in mind that there are no pictures on the wall or many ornaments yet, but I'm working on that.
There are loads here in no particular order - you can check out the new green sofa (same as the old, just darker and soooooooooo comfortable - it may look crappy, but it makes up for it in comfort!) and all the other furniture changes, the new kitchen and there's a pic of the new washer/dryer in our tiny laundry room.
It's soooo exciting. I'm now focusing on cushions, pictures, art and stuff. Oh yeah, and rearranging the kitchen now all the crystal is out of the cupboard and in the new cabinet!

The keys to your life

The Keys to Your Life

Anything good in your life comes from you having the strength to make good decisions. You know how to assess a situation before you leap into action. Anything bad in your life comes from sinking to the level of those around you. Remember to lift people up, and refuse to participate in anything petty.

The Keys To Your Life

A.A.A.D.D.

I received this from my friend Nikki and I had to share - this is sooooooo ME!

A.A.A.D.D. - KNOW THE SYMPTOMS.....PLEASE READ!
------------------------------------------------------------
Thank goodness there's a name for this disorder.
Somehow I feel better, even though I have it!!
------------------------------------------------------------

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage,
I notice mail on the porch table that
I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,
Put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table,
And notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back
On the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think,
Since I'm going to be near the mailbox
When I take out the garbage anyway,
I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my check book off the table,
And see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study,
So I go inside the house to my desk where
I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks,
But first I need to push the Coke aside
So that I don't accidentally knock it over.

The Coke is getting warm,
And I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke,
A vase of flowers on the counter
Catches my eye--they need water.

I put the Coke on the counter and
Discover my reading glasses that
I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk,
But first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter,
Fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote.
Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV,
I'll be looking for the remote,
But I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table,
So I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs,
But first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers,
But quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table,
Get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to
Remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

The car isn't washed

The bills aren't paid

There is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter

The flowers don't have enough water,

There is still only 1 check in my check book,

I can't find the remote,

I can't find my glasses,

And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,
I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all damn day,
And I'm really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem,
And I'll try to get some help for it,
But first I'll check my e-mail....

Ankle Update

On Monday, I brought my doctor's appointment forward to today as it was hurting. The shot really didn't do too much good and my foot has ached a lot in the last few days. I was not in the best frame of mind today. Not really sure why - it started when I bit a chunk out of my cheek at lunch and it went downhill from there. My doctor's appointment was at 3pm. By the time I got there I was definitely "Mrs Grumpy Head" (as Tim would say!). My foot was aching etc etc. Anyway, initially the doc has put me back in a cast for 2 weeks and then if it wasn't better to have an MRI scan. Given this whole debacle is not my fault, I asked him to bring that forward. So....my MRI is on Saturday. That will tell me if this is just time or if there's something more serious going on.

Hopefully it's the first....

Rhubarb

Rhubarb is one of my favourite fruits. It annoys me that it's a) expensive and b) crappy when I buy it. While I was in England I really enjoyed having it straight out of Dad's garden (yummy!) and also being able to buy it as a yogurt flavour.

While at Melissa's this weekend for the holidays I mentioned that I wanted to grow some rhubarb in a pot on our balcony. How it was when she said that there was some in her garden. So...check out my new project. I'm hoping it'll fill the pot over the next year.

I'm soooooo excited!

Dragon's Den

New TV program from the UK is going to be available next week on BBC America. It's called Dragon's Den. Basically it's a bunch of investors (think millionaires) who interview inventors. It's the inventor's job to convince the investors to invest. I've watched it a lot when I've been in the UK and it's great.

http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/323/index.jsp

So, if you get BBC America - give it shot.

Ankle Update

I went to the docs again today and I'm off exercise again. He put me in plaster, told me to wear my big ass bootie but not before he snuck in a kick ass shot of cortizone. Owwwweeeeeeee. He says that it should work miracles so here's hoping.

I'm writing this rather than going to my super spin class on a Thursday night with Carla. Hopefully though, when I visit the doc next Thursday he'll let me go then.

Welcome to Harry

My cousin Emily had her baby this week - Harry arrived in quick time (30mins start to finish!!). I'm looking forward to meeting him - the pic is of Chloe, Jack and Harry. How cute they look!

On other news, I'm happier - rather than the 7lb I put on while in England, it's down to 4lb - I had a really good healthy day yesterday so am feeling a little more positive. I also worked out with Billy so I had my ass whooped - I didn't realize how much I miss exercise when I'm not home. I really have to find a way to motivate myself to exercise when I'm away from home - I can do it, I know I can.

I added links to my blog of all my favourite ones....including my self-analyzing BS of diet and exercise. Happy reading!

Home again

I made it. I'm home. I was so torn to come back when Mum's not 100%, but Dad and Tim are there and the doc is Ok with progress, although it's not perfect. I've decided to call every day i can, rather than rely on email or instant messaging. It's much better to hear people's voices, right?


I did manage to get on the scales this morning. All I can say is that I'm embarrassed and fat. So much so, that i'm taking a leaf out of Penny and I'm starting a whole new blog dedicated to my fight against fat. Check it out at http://britchik96fitness.blogspot.com/. I'm going to post both my exercise regime and also what I eat. I've committed with my friend Debbie that we're going to lose 10lb before I head back to the UK in mid-August. So, happy reading!

My ankle hurts still - but i did get to a spin class last night. I didn't realize how much I missed it - it was nice to chat with Carla (the instructor), and hear a few "welcome backs" from some friends at the gym.

I'm so happy to be back home. Trev went out and got some balloons which was soooo cute. I'm taking next Monday on vacation and I'm going to spend some time making my home, home again. Yeeeeeha!