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Bunny (and me) Want Spring!


Yesterday was the most wonderful spring day -- unseasonable, but blessed! And tomorrow sleet is predicted. In an effort not to let the weather and my least favorite weather of all, sleet, get to me I am sharing a perfectly adorable bunny. Again, thanks to dear Penniwig for this bunny and wishing all unexpected and blessed surprises, like a spring day in February.

48 Days Until Opening Day








Here are the promised pictures of the new Yankee Stadium. Opening Day is now 48 days away! Tickets for the opener are mucho expensive, enough for practically a week in Europe, so I will make do with television, but it was really fun being up at the stadium and watching all the preparations for getting it ready to open. The picture on the right shows a camera being placed on the side of the stadium.
Today was a day that was a preview of spring -- much warmer than it's been and just a little rain. All we need are a few tulips and we're just about there.



49 Days until Opening Day -- Photos to Follow

In an effort to honor my responsibility to blogworld I decided I would carry my camera with me about my daily life. Today was the first day of this new practice. Part of the day was spent going to Yankee Stadium as part of a work assignment to look at the bus stops. I took lots of pictures. Some were for work and some were taken with my bloggy friends in mind. I took care of the work part and then proceeded to leave the camera in the office.

Since I have no pictures of today's activities I will share three facts. I work in a transportation agency and I am often looking at bus stops. I am a great baseball fan and my favorite team is the Yankees. Started following them in the fifth grade -- Mickey Mantle era -- and haven't stopped. I also like the Mets and am one of 804,000 people (no kidding!) that has entered a lottery to be able to buy tickets to the opening day game at the new stadium. It is officially called CitiField, but I will always call it Shea Stadium. My third fact is that if during my college years anyone had predicted I would be inspecting bus stops and getting paid for it, I would have laughed without stopping for days. And a bonus fact, I was a Religion major in college and loved studying religious history and ethics. It's been a long way from St. Anselm to bus stops.

Please share a fact with me! I am so happy when I have visitors here and want to get to know my bloggy friends.

Anne of Green Gables







One of my favorite trips is to visit the homes of authors -- especially of books I love. This started early in my life. I grew up in Hartford and it seemed that we were going to the Mark Twain house all the time. Maybe not all the time, but at least once a year we'd go with visiting relatives. Through the years my family visits included Louisa May Alcott's home -- I thrilled to see the setting for Little Women -- and Walden Pond.


One of my dreams was to see Prince Edward Island, the setting for my beloved Anne of Green Gables. I had the opportunity two summers ago and it was as beautiful as I'd always imagined. The house is Green Gables, where the author of the stories of Anne, Lucy Maud Montgomery, lived with her grandparents and wrote Anne of Green Gables. The house was as charming and peaceful as I'd imagined it -- and it was a delight that this childhood dream was not a disappointment.
It was a wonderful trip -- the seashore and the lighthouses, the friendliness of the people I met and the delicious food. And of course, the happiness of being able to have my long-held wish come true and be as sweet and delightful as I'd imagined.



Right Click and More Right Clicks

Dear Penniwig has a wonderful post on getting floating bubbles/flowers to put on one's blog, and she made it sound easy. Definitely easy enough for this very challenged blogger. With great determination not to be easily thrown I've been right clicking for the what seems like eternity and as you note no little bubbles or buttercups dancing up the page.

As the goal of this blog is to focus on the bright side of life I'm not letting the failure to obtain bubbles get me down. I will survive this lack of right click bubble success. I'm not even going to consider it bubble failure. I'm just not quite there on the right clicks.

I was actually feeling pretty good about my blogging. On the left side of the blog, please note the successful implementation of Shelfari. And if you look carefully at my bookshelf there is The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Web Page & Blog, a sign of my determination to master all the wonders of right clicking. I have opened the book, but in honesty just looking at the introduction gives me a headache.

On this note it's time to watch the Academy Awards. As they would have said in one of my favorite movies -- if it had been made 60 years later -- "Tomorrow is another day to blog."

Thank you, Penniwig


Just browsing around blogworld this morning and found a great blog. Being the complete blog beginner that I am, I am not sure how to do a link, but it is a lovely blog, with terrific graphics to share. This pretty graphic seemed perfect to follow my post about waiting for spring.
One of my goals for 2009 is to get better with blogging. I am going to figure out the floating hearts, how to link my playlist and maybe for starters a cute header. Penniwig, thanks for the added inspiration as I make my aging brain learn new tricks.


Spring, Please Come Soon!







I try not to count the days away, looking forward only to the future. But hard as I try I cannot help but look ahead to the spring. Today was a day for my down coat and boots, and though we didn't get snow (hurray!) it was cold rain, wind and a generally gray and gloomy day. As a treat I let my mind drift ahead to spring, to the first little crocus, shoots of green grass, tiny buds on the trees and the first warm breeze. Can't wait!


Took this photo in St. Paul, MN. One of my goals is seeing all 50 states and had a great trip to Minneapolis and St. Paul two years ago. What a feast of interesting sights -- the Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden, the Guthrie Theater, wonderful sculptures of the Peanuts characters in St. Paul and yes, I did get to the Mall of America.


Nine in '09


I love to travel, whether it's far and exotic -- India or Borneo -- or near and dear. Just name a place and I am on a train, plane, bus or subway. One of my favorite travellers is my friend, Mary. We've been all around the US together (Atlanta, Chicago, Louisville, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis and Milwaukee) and a wonderful week in Paris to celebrate Mary's landmark birthday almost 10 years ago.


This year a week in Europe is not on the schedule, but we're doing local trips exploring New York. We're calling it "Nine in '09." Our first was on Saturday and our destination was Jackson Heights, Queens. Only an hour from my house and we were in a wonderful neighborhood of Indian restaurants and groceries, jewelers and clothing stores. We ate at the Indian Taj and had a great meal. Especially liked the tandoori chicken and warm bread, right from the oven. We explored groceries and enjoyed the scent of the spices. Will definitely return to do some grocery shopping after exploring some recipes.
Not sure where our next trip will be, but we're thinking of Asian food in Flushing, Queens or Middle Eastern in Brooklyn. Forgot the camera this trip, but will make sure I have it with me for our other eight excursions.
We ended our day with a stop at Michaels, one of my favorite destinations. Had a great time looking at the paper crafts and added to my card making supplies.
And a very warm welcome to two new bloggy friends! So glad you stopped by.
Take good care, dear friends!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day

Hi Bloggy friends! So glad it's a long weekend. Will be back over the next few days to catch up, but want to make sure to wish everyone a very happy Valentines Day.

One Sweet Thing...

My blog friend Stacey posted 14 sweet things in her life.
One definite sweet thing is my love of travel
and traveling with my friends. I have been so fortunate to travel with many of my friends and thought I would share a few of the photos. My friends definitely are high on the list of the sweet parts of my life and I love looking at pictures of places I've shared.



These pictures are from a wonderful trip in 2006 to Santiago de Compostela, the ancient pilgrimage city in northern Spain. We didn't do the total walk from France through the Pyranees, but covered the last 60+ miles...and in the interest of full disclosure, I only walked about half of that. It was an extraordinary adventure through the chestnut forests, the farm lanes and into Santiago. I thrilled as we passed each marker with the traditional sign of the pilgrim, the scallop shell.




I'd hoped to do this trip since college, but hadn't found friends to travel with, so this was the answer to a long-time hope and it was as sweet an experience as I'd believed it would be. Mary and Pat were wonderful traveling friends, thoughtful and funny. I enjoyed the country scenery, the small towns we visited, the Galician music and the architecture we saw, especially the magnificent cathedral in Santiago. Our hotel in Santiago was originally a convent founded by St. Francis, during his pilgrimage. The only downside to the trip was the worst case of blisters imaginable, but I learned to communicate the need for mole skin quite well by the end of the trip.

And so on a not-so-cold winter evening in New York I close my eyes and remember, laughter and history and scallop shells carved a thousand years before, guiding us on our way.

Sweet baby Veiyah

Karg Family Updates: URGENT Update on Veiyah's Surgery!!!
Reading through the blogworld...Sweet baby Veiyah is in need of prayer. Dear blog friends, please join in prayers for a complete recovery.

So long, D.


This afternoon we had the last of several going away parties for a colleague. Our desks for the last four years were eight feet apart. Dolores was generally the first person I would greet in the morning and we probably spoke at least 100 times every day and had for over 11 years. To say she was an important part of my life was an understatement. She was the Administrative Assistant for our group and I know I will only begin to see all that she did in the next few weeks and months when she is not there.

I got to give a speech at her party and so many memories of the last 11 years came to me. I spend a lot of time at work and many of my colleagues have become friends. I am looking to retire in the next five years and these days of saying so long to D. -- I can't even write good-bye as it sounds too final -- feel like a foreshadow of my own leaving.

Some of my notes...When we hired D. I hoped for someone capable, with a good phone manner who would be nice to our customers. I hoped the person would stay for at least two years. After the interviews, my colleague, Michael said I think Dolores will work out well. How right he was.

And so in 1997 it began through...two office moves, birthday parties, lotto tickets, programs in senior centers and church halls, UREQs, DCRs, 6,000 post-its, 2600 time sheets, 10,000 file folders, weddings, babies, a million phone calls, two million hysterical phone calls, A day of infamy, Days of joy and all the other days that made up our time at work together. Dolores, we will miss you so much!

Too Much Clicking?

Last Saturday morning I was reading my email when I noticed "N wants to be your friend on facebook." N is one of my very closest friends. We met in high school, lost touch somewhere in the 1970s when I lived in Nashville and through great good fortune got back in touch in the early 80s. We celebrate most holidays together, can spend hours chatting, shopping, cooking together and visiting museums. Her husband is one of the nicest people I know and I adore her two sons. I'd also been meaning to call her for several days and it was on the top of my list of things I wanted to do on Saturday. I clicked yes immediately and then left the computer to do just that, call N.

There are days I worry that being friends on facebook takes the place of being friends. Am I clicking more than calling? Am I clicking more than visiting? Am I just clicking too much? Some of my facebook friends (and it's not a big group) are my closest friends and were long before facebook. There are friends from elementary school, high school, college, children and relatives of friends, work colleagues, former work colleagues, friends who are part of a very long standing on-line group and yes, one person I've never met. The latter emailed me because of an interest in reading and writing.

And the long standing on-line group is no longer just an "on-line" group. We still email, but we also call, visit, actually write to each other and even vacation together. The group sharing key lime pie on a stick is a subset of the larger group.

I celebrate the wide and widening circle of friends, and I welcome my present and future blog friends. As long as my clicking doesn't replace calling, visiting, praying and laughing with friends it's been a great addition to my life.