Watched the ripples run away

Life is Busy, Life is Good

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:08:16 GMT

Where to begin....
Well I think it's no coincidence that the word business starts with "busi" :-)

Our new business, Creative Aging Solutions officially launched today at a local Senior Expo. Got about a dozen qualified leads and plenty of networking. There's been a lot of work the last couple weeks getting the "doors open" but it's all good.

But what a busy week it has been altogether. Medical appointments for Jack Monday and Tuesday. Next week, 3 days of appointments including a procedure to help clear his arteries in his leg. It's a priority because he has a non healing wound that's getting really serious.

I also scheduled 5 interviews for yesterday to get a replacement part time aid. We've been doing without since I fired the last one in July for stealing, but with the new business, the holidays, all the extra medical appointments, I just need more help. 4 showed up and 2 were excellent. My #1 choice took the offer and I'm calling the #2 tomorrow to tell her I want to keep her contact in reserve just in case.

Plus I get to a rheumatologist over the joint stiffness next week in between Jack's three appointments. I think my GP is confused by Lyme disease that doesn't go away after the recommended 30 days of antibiotics. Based on what I've read, thats more the exception than the rule, but I'm not sure where to go next either.

Next is getting together my display and inventory for Harvest Day in Langhorne on Saturday. I haven't pulled out my tent and tables to show my jewelry in over a year and I feel rusty. I'm glad I scheduled these shows, I really need to get connecting with customers again.

Wendy's been in VA visiting friends and I'll be glad to have her home on Monday. Not that she's a loud kid or anything, but it's just too quiet around here without her. This is the first Halloween I won't be with her. Feels weird to not have to worry about trick or treating. But I guess I just have to live and realize she's getting older and someday she's going to not be in my daily life. It makes me a little sad to think of, but it's what every parents wants really. An independent member of society doesn't magically happen on the 18th or 21st birthday.

I'm thoroughly delighted with my latest toy/tool purchase. I finally managed to get a copy of Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc. It's an old set, but it's legit with serial numbers and all unopened books and all. I've been using AppleWorks/Clarisworks for all my design work since forever. I found much more often in the last few years that I'm bumping up against the limitations of good old "draw" and "paint." Having Illustrator and InDesign really sharpened things up getting our materials ready for the Senior Expo.

And I'm hoping I can revive my pressure cooker cookbook with InDesign. I self published it 10 years ago, sold out two small printings and lately have been thinking it would be worth pulling it out again. I still have the file archived on CD, but it's QuarkXpress (Like my photoshop 4....also ancient history) I don't have the program at all. It never even made it onto my old laptop.

In the meantime in prep for the holidays, I've managed to get almost all my inventory in my Etsy Store. Well actually I did have ALL my inventory on there until I took a ride up to Bristol Borough to visit Leonard at Fine Art Jewelry and forgot that I left several pieces there. Fortunately, Leonard kept them safe for me in his safe. Now there's another 8 pieces needing to be photographed and put on Etsy.

So I'm not updating LJ very often. Day to day stuff can be found on Facebook. Although I don't seem to update everyday, I really enjoy keeping in touch with so many good friends/family who live so far away and I don't seen nearly often enough. Kinda the same with Twitter. When I do update, it's fun to do it from the iphone.

But I think I may try a new approach to updating here. I have two 4 month dry erase calendars in the office area that keep the "master schedule." This way we always have 8 months at a view at all times. So every 4 months, I take pictures of the calendars so I know what we've done before it all gets erased (my iCal doesn't keep things as long as I'd like, and I'm not sure how that would affect things anyway.) At the very least I should post a highlights entry at this point. The latest calendar ends Saturday so we shall see.

So as in the subject line...life is busy life is good.
:-)

PA Government wants Seniors homes! (cross posted to CAREGIVING)

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:14:02 GMT

I just found out about a bill that being snuck through in Harrisburg to EXPAND Estate Recovery in a pathetic effort to balance the state's budget. I'm livid about this.

Basically if you are a caregiver taking care of someone (even your spouse) and they need to receive assistance from Medicare or Medicaid (almost everyone who needs nursing home care these days...unless you are related to Donald Trump or the Rockefellers), the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is trying to pass a law saying that even if your home was previously "protected" from Medicare, they will put a lien on it to recover the expenses that were paid. It's known as HB1351.

It used to be the surviving spouse/family/caregivers could still keep the family home/farm under most circumstances, but the thugs in Harrisburg want to change that and make a couple million to help balance the state budget on the backs of the elderly poor and their families.

And yes...you HAVE to be poor before you can even qualify for Medicaid, spending almost every dime you have before the Government will help with long term care. And your family home, forget about leaving it to your children, they can't inherit it, they can't finance it and why should you even keep it maintained if there's a Government lien on it?

Together with my husband, I have formed a Political Action Committee and put up a website & blog to start to get the word out. Check it out! spread the word!
http://www.caregiversagainsthb1351.com

Soggy sailing

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:14:51 GMT

Tuesday was a great sailing day. The winds were coming from the South and we tacked our way to the Bay bridge for a couple hours. By then we were getting a bit of sun and heat so as we reached the bridge we turned on the engine and powered the rest of the way into Annapolis, MD. We spent the night downtown at the City Docks. Very nice location.

We walked around downtown and had dinner and some ice cream.

Beth had to leave to get back to PA on Wednesday so we headed back to Rock Hall at about 9:30. The forecast called for some really nasty thunderstorms all day.The nasty kind with damaging winds and hail. Yuck. We didn't see any and there wasn't even enough wind to power sail so we powered up the bay.

We got back to the slip in Rock Hall and decided to stay there for the night at least due to the forecast. Wendy and I tried out the pool after Beth left and went out to dinner.
But the forecast for Thursday (today) and tomorrow is kind of wet. This morning had the best outlook for getting some sail time in, so Wendy and I had some breakfast and pulled out of the slip about 9:30 with no destination planned.

I was very proud that we were able to get the boat under full sail, just the two of us. Wendy does very well doing these things even with only a minimal of actual practice and instruction.

We got out into the bay (which takes about an hour under power) and sailed for about 3 hours and headed back towards the Eastern shore. We thought about heading up the Chester River to anchor for the night, but the boat has to be back at noon tomorrow and if the weather in the morning is bad, we could have a miserable couple of hours, followed by a 2 and a half hour drive home. We decided to declare a chartering victory and anchor near the marina again so we can head back early tomorrow. I think it was a good decision because the rain has been pretty heavy since it was made..

So now we are relaxing and straightening up the boat to get ready to leave.

It's been a very interesting experience for me. It's been over 4 years since I was even on a sailboat and it was in early 2000 that we pretty much stopped cruising altogether. I really expected to struggle more than I have, with remembering how to maneuver, the points of sail, using a chart, the names of things, etc.
But it all came back quickly and I feel like I've really been able to impart a lot of practical knowledge in Wendy's direction. It's been a great time, weather and all. I can remember what I liked about cruising and see myself doing it again.
Nah, I don't want to own a boat again, but this business of renting OPB (other people's boats) is something I see myself doing on a regular basis in the future. Dollar for dollar, it's cheaper for the same amount of sailing and no unexpected expenses in between the pleasure of being out on the water.

Vanya Sulie!

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On a boat again

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:03:18 GMT

I'm reminded of the song from the Muppet Movie: "This looks familiar, Vaguely familiar"

We arrived in Rock Hall early yesterday afternoon, checked out the boat, motored out to the bay and sailed around for a little while. We came back into where we came from to anchor in Swan Creek for the night.

It was a little windy, I had to tie off the halyard with a bungee to get to sleep, but it worked and now it's light. Wendy was up first. She's got LOTS of enthusiasm for this and is having a ball. I guess those years in infancy spent doing this all the time somehow got into her blood.

Guess I'll start some breakfast. The plan for today is to sail to Annapolis and tie up somewhere for the night.

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The rest of the story

Thu, 28 May 2009 02:04:31 GMT

So Sunday we got Jack up and let him go out on his own with plans to meet us at the Mirage to see Cirque Du Soleil's Beatles "Love" at 7pm. Patty and I took the kids to breakfast at Paris (I think that's the name, it's the hotel with the Eiffel Tower) by the time we got back it was time to head to the car rental place. We grabbed a car and got outta Dodge...I mean Vegas.

Patty had been staring out the hotel windows since we arrived thinking how cool the mountains looked (cool as in really interesting...not cool as in temperature- this is the desert.) We were all so happy to leave the city behind that we were thrilled to see the desert. How pathetic is that?

We headed to Hoover Dam. Got in a little bit of a traffic jam on the way and arrived about 3:45. Not a lot of time before we had to head back, but we had time to take the power plant tour. It was really awesome and we had a great view of the new bridge they are building to cross over the dam to help with the traffic bottlenecks.

We headed straight to the Mirage, parked at Treasure Island and took the tram between them. We planned to watch the sea battle after the Cirque show later so it seems good to park the rental there for now.

Jack doesn't show up for the show. Great. I looked him up on the AT&T familymap website and he's still in the downtown area. So as the time got closer we left his ticket at will call and went in.

As underwhelmed as I was by Zumanity, I was blown away by this one. It was better than I had even expected and I've heard many good things about Cirque shows in general. Plus the music was really good. It was Beatles but remixed in places, reworked in others and completely original as well. (I read later that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr helped with this and it won a grammy for compilation for other media.)

We came out and still no sign of Jack. I'm still checking the AT&T site, but there seems to be problems accessing it through the iphone. So we watched the volcano erupt at the Mirage and headed back to the car and our Hotel. (New York, NY)

Back at the room we had internet access and it wasn't looking any better. It appears that he was somewhere in or around the Mirage. Possibly looking for us? So we waited for a while, but as the time got on, I knew I was going to have to make sure he was ok. I called the Mirage, gave his description and tried to get them to find him.

Meanwhile Cami was supposed to be helping him to bed and he needed to sleep. It was very late. We let him just go to bed. The box office at Cirque was closed so I couldn't find out if Jack showed up for his ticket.

Finally Pat and I decided to have the girls man the computer and we would go try to find him. No luck, we walked down the strip and wandered the area where he was "showing" and looked at crowds at the Bellagio Fountain and then at the battle at Treasure Island. Finally it was after midnight and we bagged it, hopped on a bus that moved up the strip as fast we could have walked, but at least we were off our feet and out of the crowds.

I fell asleep trying to refresh the computer and his position, but it appeared to have conked out. I had a dream that Jack was back and covered in poop. I woke up and it was about 2:30. I went down to his room and found him in bed. He was bewildered that I was angry. He showed up too late to be seated so they let him in the next show. (which started at 9:30 and over at 11) then he went wandering around the strip to see the sea battle at Treasure Island.

He got himself into bed, but of course didn't do anything about his soaking wet stinking diaper except throw it on the floor with his soiled pants. No meds, he was in crooked, the underpads to keep the sheet clean were all messed up. And he was in the chair for 14 hours. about 3-4 hours more than planned. (and that 10 hours was going to be a long day) Too much time in the chair and Jack cannot support his own weight in transferring. Which means two people have to lift him. More work for the people taking care of him, but Jack never seems to think of that.

Grrr. what the dream must have meant was that Jack was in deep shit.

So Monday morning, we let Lorie take care of Jack and we drove out to Red Rock Canyon. It was very nice, we all got some things from their gift shop and had a great time getting away from the stench of Vegas.

The all of us went to a buffet at the Luxor. It was just OK, I liked the one at Mandalay Bay better. Jack, Patty and the kids then went into the Bodies exhibit. I saw the one in Philadelphia 2 years ago and really wanted to rest and start packing so Lorie and I skipped it.

We were up bright and early the next morning to catch our plane. Lorie, Pat and Jack took the handicapped shuttle to the airport and I took the kids in the rental car. Between my almost getting lost finding the car return and Jack's chair being stuck on a broken lift in the shuttle bus, we made it to the gate just was we started the preboarding. Most of us had not even had breakfast.

But we had a great salad/sandwichs we bought on the plane. Everything would have been fine except for the hour and a half delay in a holding pattern over Harrisburg. We arrived in at 6pm, the chair came up from the cargo just fine, we changed Jack in a companion bathroom and we were on our way home.

My overall impressions of the trip is that this is an amazing country and the things I enjoyed the most were not made by man, but by nature. I think spotting the mountain lion was my highlight and it only lasted about a minute and a half. Custer Park, Red Rock Canyon and the Badlands were just breathtaking in their weird beauty.

It's good to be home.

Vegas so far...

Sun, 24 May 2009 13:36:37 GMT

We arrived Friday via Allegiant Air. On the plane the flight attendents ran a pool for a bag of money and of all things, Jack won! Then it took nearly two hours to get to our hotel, waiting for a handicapped acccessible shuttle bus.

Dinner downstairs at the hotel and then we got Jack to bed. He was so much more comfortable in a hospital bed. I rode the roller coaster twice with the girls and then hung out downstairs with Lorie.

Saturday we headed out to a buffet for breakfast at Mandalay Bay. It was huge! The we headed to the Luxor and saw the Titanic exhibit, which was really awesome, very interactive.
By then it was time to put Jack into bed for a break in the middle of the day. While Cami did that, Wendy and I got together with Fran and Shirley, who are staying on the other side of the mountains. Because they drove in, they offered to drive us out to Red Rock Canyon, which was gorgeous and a welcome break from the intensity that is this particular city.

When we got back it was time to get Jack out to dinner and Zumanity. This was my first cirque du soleil show and I must say, I was underwhelmed. I had already see the best parts on YouTube and frankly some of the bawdiness was just plain stupid. I guess I expected more.
Then Jack to bed and Patty and I started plan to rent a car to take the kids out of town today instead of trying to see any more of the strip. I think another loop through Red Rock Canyon and a drive to Hoover Dam is just what we need.

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South Dakota part 3

Sat, 23 May 2009 14:08:25 GMT

So the plan on Thursday was to head out reasonably early. I was up by 6:30 am, wrote my pages and was looking out the sliding glass doors to the deck from the room Pat and I share. The owner had cleared some trees to expose a beautiful vista of the Black Hills. As remote as this house is and as inconvenient as it is not to have cell service, I loved just staring at this incredible view. On this morning, I was thinking "Gee I can stand here and get dressed and there is no one to see me except perhaps the widlife."
At that moment, a mountain lion walked into view about 30 yards from the house!
I said loudly to Pat, who was just stirring "Oh my god! A mountain lion!" she leaped out of bed saying "Camera!"
I dashed upstairs half dressed and ran for the camera, Lorie was up and in the kitchen.
I told her there was a mountain lion and we both ran for the living room window as it was walking through the clearing. I managed to snap two pictures as it entered the trees again down the hill.
After reading the warning about mountain lions in the house book when we arrived, we were a little freaked, but realized over the next few days that it really wasn't likely we were going to encounter, let alone actually see, one. We felt really lucky. Funny thing was it wasn't scary at all. It moved like a giant housecat and was obviously just passing through.
On our way out to the Badlands we stopped at the office. I asked the young man "So exactly how prevalant are mountain lions really?" His eyebrows flew up.
"You didn't see one, did you?" I told him all about it and he was as excited as we were. I told him I got a couple picture and had to run out to the car to show him. Apparantly many of the homeowners on the mountain had never seen one. He lived in the area two years before he saw one.
With all of the mountain lion excitement, our drive out to Wall Drug through the Badlands was fun. The scenery is astounding, almost otherworldy in places, and we saw plenty of prairie dogs, buffalo, mule tale deer, I even had to avoid hitting a turkey in the road.
Wall Drug was kitschy but fun. When we were almost back to the house, we encountered a herd of bighorn sheep grazing by the side of the road.
Then it was time to pack up and head out the next morning. Next stop: Las Vegas

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More South Dakota

Sat, 23 May 2009 13:31:45 GMT

So after a hectic Monday, first thing Tuesday we headed to Mount Rushmore, the reason for the visit to the Black Hills. It was a more interesting place than I thought it would be. We walked the Presidential trail around and in front of the monument, done without Jack because of many steps. Had lunch and headed off to drive through Custer State Park via Needles highway. It was absolutely breathtaking. We stopped at one point to take pictures. Just wow. Another mountain being carved in the Black Hills is the Crazy Horse Memorial. It's going slower there. They've been at it for 50 yrs, but they are a non profit that refuses to get involved with the Government, can't say I blame them there.
The Native American museum was really amazing.
On our way home Jack told us that he was having a but of pain on his bottom from so much sitting, so plans had to be changed. We also decided to have David ship out Jack's air mattess next day. Then we scrapped the drive to Devil's tower off the schedule andsplit up on Wednesday. Jack Lorie and I for a trip to Deadwood, and Pat and the kids headed to Custer Park again.

Deadwood was much more interesting than I thought. I stopped to check out a jewelry store (looking for stones actually) and ended up with a pair exquisite earrings, courtesy of Jack. This was really unusual because I will hardly ever buy, let alone wear any jewelry but my own, but these earring were a gorgeous design made in Bali.

The as we went to watch a reenactment of the murder of Wild Bill Hickock, Lorie and I became part of the "story", she as Agnes Thatcher, Wild Bill's wife and I as Calamity Jane, Bill's friend. Later on as we had lunch in the Double D saloon down the street, Wild Bill showed up and chatted with all three of us. We got Jack's picture with Wild Bill, after all, he posed with Goofy in Walt Disney World, might as well get Deadwood main character.

Jack had a better night Weds, so the plan to head to Wall drug and the Badlands on Thursday was back on.

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South Dakota

Sat, 23 May 2009 07:23:22 GMT

The whole point of this trip was to get Jack out to see Mount Rushmore. So we flew from Minneapolis on Monday. Jack and I landed first, got the rental van and when the others arrived about an hour later packed up the van and headed to the rental house.

The folks in the office were out. So I took the note and directions taped to the door and started up the mountain. Take the first left. Oops, the first left was a dirt road, but hey this is a cabin on mountain, so it's a dirt road. Well except the dirt road got worse and there was no where to turn around once I realized that there was no way this was the road. The van caught some kid of branch underneath and then it came loose. Fortunately the dirt road ran into the "right" road, but not before I damaged some trim on the van.

Then it seemed to take forever to get up to the house. It was somewhere on the side of the mountain we realized there was no cell phone service. Nada.

This really dumped my spirits which were already tired from a day of travel complete with some of Jack's more socially unacceptable antics The house was very remote.

While looking through the binder that contained info about the house, we found three pages of information about how to understand mountain lion actions to protect yourself. Great! mountain lions, too!

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JGBA Day two

Sat, 16 May 2009 00:15:20 GMT

Well the trip to Minneapolis yesterday went smoothly. The flight was on time, the US Air personnel were friendly and able to follow instructions. The transportation system from the airport to the downtown area via light rail was very easy to navigate. This is a very bicycle public transit friendly city.

Today we headed to an all you eat buffet for an early lunch. We stopped at the main branch of the post office to mail some post cards (which looked familiar- probably built around the same time as 30th Street in Philadelphia) and then wandered the downtown shopping district for a while until "walking with dinosaurs" started at 3pm.
The show was quite interesting, if a little hocky. It was fascinating to watch the dinosaurs move, but it never seemed to cross that threshold into feeling they were anything but very realistic puppets.

We walked back via the skyway which I'd an entire system of raised walkways in the downtown area. We were a little beat and ordered in pizza for Jack and the kids. The kids are now headed to the waterpark (part of the hotel) and Jack is on his way to bed.

Once Jack is safely tucked in, Lorie, Patty and I are going to head out to have a quiet dinner just the three of us.

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Jack's Great Big Adventure

Mon, 11 May 2009 02:42:29 GMT

aka...JGBA

Well we leave on Thursday. I need to write this down as much for myself as for some others who are traveling vicariously through us.

Cast of characters: Me, Jack, Lorie, Pat, Cami, Cori & Wendy. (& Flat Stanley...more about him later)

Itinerary:
Leg one: PHL to MSP
Thurs May 14, direct flight to MSP- Minneapolis, MN
Take public transit to The Depot Hotel downtown

Fri May 15- "Walking with Dinosaurs" at the Target Center. (We are really excited about this show- Lifesize animatronic dinosaurs.)

Saturday May 16- unplanned so far, exploring Minneapolis, the covered sidewalks downtown, the Mississippi River..perhaps an excursion to the Mall of America. (All I had to say was 4 story LEGO store.)

Sunday- Cami's 18th birthday- no plans yet, probably more exploring downtown, but definitely a nice dinner somewhere to celebrate.

Leg Two- MSP to RAP
Monday-May 18 Jack and I are taking a direct flight from MSP to Rapid City, SD. Everyone else is taking a flight that stops in Denver. The reason for this is the cost to fly direct between MSP & RAP is very high. ($700 each) but Jack must take direct flights. So only Jack and I will be flying direct. The whole party will meet again at the Rapid City Regional airport around 4pm.

We are renting a wheelchair van (the ONLY one available in the area) and a car because the wheelchair van will not seat 7 people.

We will drive from the Rapid City airport to the Edelweiss Mountain Lodgings where we have rented a two story handicapped accessible house on a mountain. Close to Mount Rushmore and including a hot tub.

Tuesday May 19- Visit Mount Rushmore. This was the whole point of this trip. We expect to spend a good part of the day and perhaps drive to Custer to see the Crazy Horse Memorial as well.
Wednesday May 20- Drive to the Badlands and see Wall Drug.
Thursday May 21- Drive to Devils Tower in Wyoming.

Leg Three- RAP to LAS
Friday- May 22- Fly direct from Rapid City to Las Vegas NV. Get an airport shuttle to the New York, NY Hotel where we will be staying.

Saturday May 23, wander the strip, check out hotels, buffets. in the Evening, Jack and I have tickets for Zumanity.(Cirque's sexy show)

Sunday May 24- More wandering around Vegas, maybe meet with friends- evening we all have tickets for The Beatles "Love" (another Cirque done to Beatles music)

Monday May 25- Plans still flexible.

Tuesday May 26- direct Flight from Las Vegas back to Philadelphia.

Then 5 days to do laundry, catch up on paperwork. Wendy and I are chartering a sailboat in the Chesapeake June 1-5. Beth Baur is coming along for the first part of that adventure. I've been itching to get sailing for a few years now. No itinerary on that trip, it will all depend on the wind.

Countdown

Tue, 05 May 2009 15:21:06 GMT

8 days to go until JGBA (Jack's Great Big Adventure)

Phone calls today to ensure wheelchair accessible rooms in Minneapolis and a hospital bed rental in Vegas. (They say they can't do it in Minneapolis, I think they just don't want to bother.)

Must buy more diapers and chucks so I can ship a box to where we are staying in Rapid City...rather than traveling with suitcases full of the stuff.

Meanwhile, I guess I really need to tackle that pile of paperwork I've been ignoring for a month.

Back from a great weekend

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:32:55 GMT

We were in DC this past weekend. A great time.

Friday morning we drove down. (after a small car issue 20 minutes down the road from the house- turned around, dropped it at the shop and took the van instead.) We arrived about 1pm, parked downtown in a garage and headed to the Natural History Museum. There we saw the Hope Diamond, the Giant Squid, and LOTS of other stuff. We left there and waited in line at the Archives for about 45 minutes to get to see the big documents. (Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights)

Then we drove out to Fairfax to stay with relatives of David's. Wonderful folks, we had a lovely dinner and slept very well after our long day.

Saturday we were up and to the local Metro station where we found it totally mobbed! Not only are we here to see the lovely cherry blossoms, (And were they LOVELY!) but this was the day for the parade.

We got our metro cards, got a seat and headed into town. We walked through the parade staging area (memories of marching band and drum corps had me people watching closely)
On the way to the Air and Space museum, we saw a contorted hazelnut tree. This was a really nice surprise.

Air and Space was everything I thought it would be. (I don't remember being there before except for a few minutes) The Wright Brother's plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo 11 capsules.

We had lunch, tried the flight simulator (Wendy and I are NOT the fighter pilot types!) and headed out. We wandered through the Hirschorn Sculpture Garden and the National Gallery's Sculpture garden, then walked to the Washington Monument. From there we followed the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. My feet held up pretty well considering, but when it came time to find our way back to the Metro from the Lincoln Memorial, we just grabbed a cab.

We had a great time with our hosts, just catching up and (in my case) getting to know each other better.

This morning we slept in a little and our hostess led us to a local neighborhood in Chevy Chase that was planned with cherry blossom trees back in the 40s. And oh was it gorgeous.

From there we headed to the National Zoo, checked out the pandas, the hippos and got a good look at the Elephant habitat they are constructing. Then an Indian Buffet for lunch and we were on our way home.

We need to come down here more often, it's such a great place, it's not too far, there's so much to do and most of it is free.

It's nice to be home, but it was a much needed break.

For a few minutes...

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:34:26 GMT

I'll admit I'm a bit of a pizza geek.

An Extreme Pizza Geek.

I just ordered two full size pizza stones for my GE Profile double oven. I'm in pizza heaven and have been wanting a set up like this for years. It's kind of like having a professional stone oven in my kitchen.

I had been using the big square pampered chef stone for the last 10 years. It was perfect in my little boat oven. Just a teeny space around the edges. My pizza was always the envy of the anchorage.

And the pampered chef stone worked really well in the 1947 GE Stratoliner we had until last spring. It was a small oven and not very tall most of the time. (You could change the size of the oven, a real piece of great ideas that Stratoliner)

I have about a dozen girl scouts coming over this evening for their pizza making lesson in a little while to put the new set up through its paces. I'll take pictures.

Time to get Jack to bed.

My Kindle iPhone App Review

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:06:39 GMT

I found the idea of a Kindle intriquing when they were released, but not enough to even consider spending that kind of money.

Audio books are cool, but sometimes I just like to read rather than listen. Especially before I go to sleep at night. But I also hate having to deal with turning the light on and off.

So not even 5 minutes after I found out about the existence of the free Kindle iPhone App, it was on my phone and a book purchased. It was that easy and quick to set up. (I already had an amazon account.) I decided to hold my enthusiasm until I finished a book.

:-)

I like it. It works great for me. I don't have anymore bookshelf room to store books, so now amazon will store them for me. The Kindle versions of books from Amazon are cheaper than paper and you get them really quick. I like reading in the larger fonts because I have found that I can read quicker, but its very easy to change font size for your personal preferences.

A great product in my opinion. 5 stars from me!

Shameless plug- My birthday is tomorrow...Amazon gift cards would be a totally appropriate gift. (only kidding, I have plenty already.)

Peaceful Sunday

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:04:45 GMT

We started the day at the gym. I managed to swim 32 laps (1/2 mile) in 25 minutes, this is the first time I started keeping track of the time. Wow. I'm not sure if I should add more laps or just let myself keep pushing it to get my time down more. I like to keep my entire time (including shower) to 45 minutes because that's how long David spends on the treadmill and I don't want to keep him waiting.

But still. I've been swimming seriously at least 3x a week for the last two months and I'm very happy with my progress.

So I took a walk today down by the river. I was thinking about how to incorporate more dance into my routine. I was watching stuff online while doing my belly dance moves for a few weeks, but that's hard to keep myself motivated. (Especially since I've almost finished watching all the episodes of Boston Legal, my latest interest.)

Then Andrea's Indian dance teacher signed up for the Artist Way class the other day, but couldn't make the first class. Then I find out today that she's starting a new class tomorrow night. And my Monday nights were taken with my own artist way group until recently.

Synchronicity. I've got a call into the teacher to see if I can join in at this late date.

Meanwhile the poor tent I set up over the hot tub hasn't been faring so well in the winter winds. One pole is having difficulty so when the wind kicks up I just disconnect things and let it collapse, so no hot tub this evening. I guess I make do with the bathtub and a book.

The Artist Way class starting this Saturday!

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:05:19 GMT

This six session class is based on the popular and effective work of Julia Cameron in her book "The Artist’s Way”. The group process will be facilitated by Philadelphia jeweler, Barb Baur and Certified Life Coach, Andrea Durham.

“The Artist’s Way” is designed to help develop our creative souls, whether we work with paint, poems, music or programming. This workshop focuses on connecting with source energiy and uses fun mental exercises to identify blocks to creativity. The exercises outlined in the book form the basis of the workshop.

The Artist’s Way (Part 1) will be held on six consecutive Saturdays beginning on February 21 from 12 PM to 1:30 PM. at

Zeidler Gallery (Women's Creative Alliance) at 2207 South Street, Philadelphia, PA.

Cost $80 for the six week course including materials ($64.00 if you already have a copy of the book)

For more more information or to register contact Barb@barbbaur.com

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We've got a few people registered but there is room for more if anyone reading this is interested. I really think this is a great tool for Artists and others who are interested in living life more intentionally.

Better

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:59:52 GMT

So sitting on the balcony waiting for Jack in the bathroom, Lorie is giving him a shower.

It was decided to chnage our plan of attack and adjust the schedule so that Jack doesn't spend more that 6 or so hours on the chair.

This worked much better. We got on the bus to animal kingdom at 10:30 and made it in time for our lunch reservations at Tusker house. We did Asia and Dino-land, Jack did A Bugs Life on his own while Lorie and I shopped. (I like the organic cotton shirts at AK)

The we steered him out of the park. It was back to beach club, Beaches and Cream fir dinner, where I he more ice cream than Kack and then we pit him to bed. About 5:30. He was fast asleep by 6:00. Lorie and I the him his phone and took a last walk over to Epcot for a couple more things.

Jack's done, time to start on our last couple of hours.

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2+3=!

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:14:39 GMT

Jack, determined to make the most of every second of this vacation, is spending too much time in his chair.

This is taking a toll on me and Lorie because his transfers have now gone from manageable with one person to very difficult with two people. Tomorrow the plan changes from "whatever Jack wants to do" to "Jack has to take it easy before he ruins all three of us"

Today we did a huge buffet breakfast at Crystal Palace that took over 2 hours, the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and It's a small world. We had to transfer him at Haunted Mansion and boy was it hard! Jack also HAD to have a burger at Cosmic Ray's. (a mere 2 hours after finishing the breakfast buffet)

Then Dole Whips (ok I was the one insisting on that) a stop in the "Camera Exhibit" near the entrance so Jack could ask the guy if they still carried the white plastic stereo cameras and viewers from a few years ago. The answer was negative of course.

We questioned Jack what he meant by "a few years ago" agterall the last time Jack was at Disney World was 2001. He sheepishly admitted it was probably one of his trips before then.

Then the monorail to the TTC and on to Hollywood Studios so Lorie and I could ride the Rock N Roller Coaster. Lines were really short and we rode twice, with a trip to Tower of Terror in between.

Then a quest for some kind of food and caffeine. This park in my opinion has the worse quick service options and they all as closed at least two hours before the park.

Jack wanted to do the Great Movie Ride. I agreed because you never know when Disney is going to dump this dinosaur, it could be our last chance.

Then we headed to the newest thing in the park- Toy Story Midway Mania. The wait was 50 minutes, the park closed in 45 min, so we baggedvthat idea and headed to Muppets 3-D, which was good. (It always is IMO) and of course Jack the 3-D buff really liked it too!

The we took the boat back to beach Club, grabbed some delish sandwiches in the marketplace and put Jack to bed.

Tomorrow's another day, the plan is Animal Kingdom, but I think that's going to be all for Jack.

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Busy successful day

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:23:51 GMT

So I'm once again lying in bed writing my LJ before falling asleep. Except I'm back on Disney world again.

This day started at about 5:15am for me. Lorie got Jack up at 5, so they both got me beat. But of course they are both asleep.

Everything went smoothly, from the guy at Pacifico airport valet who droppped us at the airport in our van, to the folks at the front desk here at the beach club resort who, upon realizing they didn't remove a bed from our room in anticipation of the hospital bed, handed Lorie and I a fresh pink long stem rose.

The wheelchair gate checked, dis assembled and assembled with no hitches.

The we headed right to Epcot where we managed to get on three rides with Jack, including Soarin'. We also had a great Mexican dinner, watched the Beatles imitators in England and topped it with Illuminations.

Jack was in great spirits all day. I'm glad we're doing this. Sure it's a heck of a lot of trouble, but he certainly seems to be enjoying it.

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Another whirlwind week!

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:52:35 GMT

But it sure went by quickly.

Last weekend was a lot of fun. Meeting up with David's brother, Eric in Washington, DC Friday. We made it to 3 museums Friday afternoon-American History Museum, The American Indian Museum and the National Archives. Followed by a lovely dinner of Thai in Chinatown. Then the Saturday did both buildings of the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress. Had another lovely Asian dinner with a former K.C. friend of David and Eric.

Sunday morning we took Eric to the airport then picked up serolynne and radven a short time later and took them to their B&B uptown. I didn't even realize that we were going to be in the same place at the same time until the day before...I love when Synchronicity happens! And we got to see the B&B - The Intown-Uptown Inn What a cool place, it might be a nice idea for a future visit to DC.

Then we headed out to Fairfax to see David's 2nd cousin who had a family heirloom rocking chair for us. We had a great lunch with her in a little town called Millsburg, a short drive away, then drove back to Philadelphia.

We're headed back to DC in April with Wendy and have already talked to our congresswoman's office about doing the White House and the Capital. I'm really looking forward to doing more of the Smithsonian with her. She's been upstate with the Woodruffs skiing for the last couple of weeks. She's doing well, too. Another week or so and she'll be back.

Then the rest of this week was spent getting my tasks and lists in order for the business taxes and the Disney "Make Up" trip.

The meeting with the accountant Tuesday went well, although I had lots of follow up stuff to do and we finished up things today.

Jack, Lorie and I leave Monday morning for Walk Disney World. (I know....my 3rd Florida trip in 4 months, go ahead and hate me!) The planning is going well, as long as Jack stays healthy long enough to get on the plane this time.

I did get some more swimming in today. It's been a week since I was swimming, but it feels good and I actually lost a couple pounds when I got on the scale.

Tomorrow...more blacksmithing!

Away for the weekend

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:19:11 GMT

I'm taking a few minutes to gather my thoughts and my things before we leave to head to DC for the weekend. David's brother is in town for business and we're going to meet up with him this afternoon. No plans yet for tomorrow, I think some Smithsonian is in order. It's been a long time since I was in the gift shop of the National Gallery looking at one of my favorite paintings.

Then Sunday we meet with another of David's relatives for lunch and bring home a family heirloom she no longer has room for.

Lotsa plans, but of course my brain is churning with ideas of other kinds. The new artist way class. Jewelry ideas, tax stuff, learning programming.

Oh well....Pudge wants fed and she has stopped being subtle.

So much going on...

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:44:37 GMT

I see I haven't posted in over two weeks.

In that time frame, Patty came to visit, we met with Jack's stroke Doc and his financial guy.

We had a meet the artist event at Zeidler Gallery on South Street (aka The Women's Creative Alliance) the exhibit is still up if anyone is in the area.

I've tackled several jewelry repairs and continued work on some new pieces, did a little more small scale blacksmithing in my shop.

Had a wonderful event to celebrate a special milestones in David's life. www.eventerunlimited.com did an awesome job on the catering.

Wendy has gone to the mountains for a few weeks for winter activities with the Woodruffs. On her second day out she graudated from the bunny slopes to the real slopes. Yay for her!

David and I spent the day downtown on Friday. I got some supplies on jeweler's row and we may have a new client.

I've had to have the van in the shop twice for more repairs on the darn air ride system. This seems SO problematic and darn expensive too.

I'm going to co-facilitate a 6 week Artist Way class starting Feb 21.

David and I are meeting his brother in DC this coming weekend.

I've got myself up to 30 laps swimming in the mornings and I've begun doing my belly dance workout on my own in the evenings. Feels good.

Lots of jewelry projects in the works, including a couple of collaborative pieces that we're looking to distribute through other channels.

I'm trying to learn Objective C programming, I've got an idea for an iPhone app and at nearly 44 years old I think its time for me to learn to program. I always meant to.

Finally getting around to reading Neil Gaiman's Coraline on Wendy's recommendation. All I can say is: creepy.

Enough for now. Got to take the van back to the shop....again!

Tools!

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 07:10:51 GMT

Ok, so I went to sleep at a reasonable time really. And now I'm awake because my mind woke up and now won't go back to sleep.

A good bit of what I did today was learning.
Incredible immersion into tools and techniques in several hours of one on one with a master craftsman. Or rather crafts woman.

Louise is a modern blacksmith with old world training. Her work is in churches all over the country. It's the kind of stuff you stare at when you're sitting in prayer in a darkened sanctuary and thinking "wow. Isn't that cool?" or well rather that's what I would do when I saw near iron work in churches. Forget about however many hail marys or our fathers I was supposed to be saying. I would be thinking. "How did they make something so solid, but it looks so organic? Leaves and vines out of metal."

Big metal tools. Coal forge. Saws, grinders. Different layout ideas. Power Hammer. Did I mention the power hammer? Talk about working smart instead of working hard!

I doubt I will ever have a set of tools like this, but it's worth so much to me to understand how to work ferrous metals. Ideas and designs are already floating through my brain.

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I'm going to SUUSI!

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:14:37 GMT

SUUSI (Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute) accepted my workshop proposal. Now as long as I get a few people to sign up for it, I guess I'm going. It's July 19-25.

My proposal was for a copper talisman workshop, created using etching solution techniques. Fun fun....

www.suusi.org