Another Fun Weekend

April 25

Every year in Delray Beach we have a huge street fair. Six years ago,when I first attended the Delray Affair, it was small....4 blocks of the Avenue were cut off to traffic, many of the stores set up tables outside and displayed their wares, & some bands were playing the streets. In fact, my picture was taken while looking at some CDs on a table, and appeared in a short-lived AVENUE magazine. Now the Delray Affair is a weekend-long extravaganza. The city shuts down about 10 blocks of the Avenue, there are tented booths as far as you can see, and into the side streets as well, foods from all cultures being sold, entertainment, etc. Since parking is almost impossible I walked to the Avenue from home...9 blocks. Once there I walked the entire length and back - took me a few hours. I enjoyed meandering through the many sellers booths, in and out of a few stores as well. I stopped by the booth of my favorite local radio station Sunny 104.3. I wanted to tell them how much I appreciate that they now give morning traffic reports after every song. No more ending up in a traffic jam while waiting for 5 songs to finish. While waiting to say my thank you, I filled out an entry form to win a spa package at a local spa, and one for Cirque du Soleil Delirium. I then went on my way. Later on we went to the movies to see American Dreamz - cute, entertaining and a little goofy.

When we got home there was a message from the radio station... I had WON two tix to Cirque for the next night (Sunday). We were so excited!!! The seats were choice, and cost $260 for the pair...not a bad win at all! When the next afternoon was upon us we decided to drive to the area of the arena and have a nice dinner. I had seen on the ticket site that the performance started at 8 PM so we left the house at 5:15. When we stopped for gas, Gerry suggested that I look at the tix, as 8 PM seemed a little late for a show on a Sunday evening. And wouldn't you know it....it said 7 PM on the tix. So....bye, bye nice dinner. We ate at Wendy's (and the potato was really good!). Our seats at Cirque were unbelieveable....row 5, center, up close and personal. The show was great! We had seen La Nuba in Orlando on our honeymoon and loved it. We are heading to Vegas in July and hope to catch either O or Mistique.

Now Gerry says I should play the lottery since I am lucky! I should, shouldn't I?

When I went to get my tix on Sunday I rode my bike into town. I passed many stores that were displaying things outside. I picked up this little pocketbook, totally not my usual style, but the price was right and it was sooo pretty. I wanted to get one in a lighter color but one was enough. What do you think? Cute, huh? So NOT ME but I love it (but holds next to nothing). A very fruitful weekend, for sure!

Definitely Worth The Wait

April 20

Today was fun but exhausting. The entire kindergarten went on a field trip to Flamingo Gardens (Fort Lauderdale). I had never been there before, but I set it up (way back in August) 'cause I wanted to finally get there I heard it was a great trip for the kids. We were not disappointed. The tour guides and the rest of the staff are unbelievably friendly and helpful, and the presentation was very age appropriate. My class was fabulous (thank goodness). When we returned to school there was barely an hour left so we just had a relaxing end of the day. Then....the principal called a meeting, just as I was preparing to hightail it on home. Luckily it didn't last long and I was on my way. I am SOOOOO tired and couldn't wait to get home, and was worried about my 3 dogs who were alone from 6:45 AM - 3:30 PM (with Gerry visiting his brother there was no way for them to "go out.") They were amazing...one little wet spot - probably from the usual culprit, Tiemann....and believe me, THAT I can live with.

My surprise when I got home was a package from SP7....Francesca from PA. She has been a fabulous SP. This last package was so terrific (love the baseball postcard, too): a box of STASH Chai green tea bags...LOVE green tea!...a skein of lace weight Shadow, 100% Merino Wool, color Sunset from Knit Picks, a skein of natural wool (looks like worsted weight) with 4 packages of Kool-Aid in cool colors for dying the yarn (and that's SO much fun to do), and a WONDERFUL book Great Knitted Gifts by Andrea Shackleton & Gayle Shackelton. The patterns have lots of colors and use intarsia....and since Alison says I am an ADVANCED knitter (um - if you say so, honey), then I guess I will have to knit some from this lovely book. Thank you, Francesca...you have been a GREAT SP7! It's been fun being spoiled by you!

On My Own

April 18th

UGH! Today I returned to work after a nice, long Spring break. Actually, my students were terrific....it was just being there instead of home that I didn't like. Compounding things was that Gerry drove to Central Florida today to spend some time with his brother. Eddie and his wife Billie have a house in The Villages, about 1/2 way between Orlando and Ocala, Florida. They come down from their NJ home whenever they have vacation time. In about 2 years they will relocate for good. Anyway...with Gerry gone, my poor dogs can't go out to "go." Luckily, Gerry didn't leave till around noon, so they were only stuck in for 4 hours or so. I got home and there were no "accidents" in the house, which is a miracle because my maltese Tiemann has a very small bladder (and a very LARGE attitude). After going out, Tiemann ran inside and I heard his angry bark. I thought he was telling me that the water bowl was empty (he really DOES let me know). Well, the bowl was full, and he was alternating barking - YELLING - at me and the door. He did this to me when Gerry was in the hospital and I was gone a long time. He is mad that Gerry isn't walking in after me. Seriously...you should hear this little guy yell at me, as if to say, "Where the hell is he? Why isn't he with you?" Most likely he saw Gerry walk out with a suitcase....Tiemann doesn't forget!!! Tomorrow my stepdaughter Suzzette is doing me a BIG favor by coming here on her lunch hour to let the boys out, as I will be gone from 6:45 AM until about 5:30 PM. There is no way I could hold it that long!!! Oh, I dread Thursday and Friday...she can't make it and I'll be gone till 3:30 or 4! There are no neighbors home and no kids in the area so....!
So Gerry did the drive and felt pretty good. I am glad, cause that gave him confidence that he could do more than he thought he could. It's good for him to get away since he is home much of the time, and it can drive you crazy looking at 4 walls and dealing with three dogs who always want to go out back.
After rushing home and having a normal dinner (something I rarely have on Tuesday nights) I went to my knitting group. There were 7 of us tonight....that's a huge crowd compared to our usual 3 or 4. We were so happy to be joined by Maddy. When I first started knitting with this group, Maddy was a regular, Then, last fall, she had two strokes (at the age of 47). The second one left her paralyzed on one side. She has been in a nursing home/rehab for the past several months. Unfortunately, she has no money or benefits, so she is not in a place that gives her the therapy she needs. She's doing better though, and hopes to one day get back to a place of her own and possibly drive again, since she has full use of her right side. What amazed me was that she is knitting again. Maddy was a great knitter/crafter. She had to relearn, now using her left hand to hold the needle in place, and use the English method of "throwing" with her right hand. It took a lot of hard work and perseverance, but she is doing it and doing it well. I always say that I am very thankful for what I have in life, no matter what little challenges are thrown at me, for there is always someone a little worse off than me, fighting whatever battles they may have. Bravo, Maddy! Keep up the good work. And thank you to Catherine for being a good friend to Maddy and for bringing her out for the evening to join us.

Gotta Dance!!

Today I made dinner for me, Gerry, my mom and Gerry's daughter Suzzette. I "treated" us to a pork roast with gravy, salad and veggie and roasted white and sweet potato wedges. It was sooo good! I even splurged and made dessert. Thank you, Alison, for introducing me to Banquet's Apple Crisp. It was soooo easy to make and so delicious. I pigged out enjoyed my little snack, since I rarely eat desserts.

After Suzzette left, I took Mom to the movies to see Take The Lead. What a fabulous movie!! We had seen Mad Hot Ballroom, but I had no idea that this was about the same individual who started the Ballroom Dancing program in the NYC schools. Don't miss this one. The music is terrific, the performances really good, and by the end you want to get up and get movin' along with the kids.

After This, I'll Need the Vacation

We are going to Hawaii next December for my 2 week vacation. I have been going NUTS making the arrangements. First, I tried to get frequent flyer seats, but there were none available for 35,000 earned miles. So I cursed and stomped my feet decided to take the seats that were 70,000 earned miles....EACH!! We do have a lot of saved miles and I have to use them some time! I was hoping to go to Hawaii using my two banked timeshare weeks, but again....nothing available (there's over a year's wait to get a place using exchanged weeks). Since we have to pay for accommodations, it made sense to take the over-priced free flights. I have been wearing out my eyes using the computer to get accommodations. Finally I thougtht I took a place in Kona, Hawaii for 5 nights, and in Kihei, Maui for 9 nights. WRONG!!! E-mails back and forth told me that I didn't have the bookings I had hoped to get (and I worked for DAYS on it). Then, last night, I agreed to take a place in Maui, only to be told that I have to send 1/2 the cost now....in a check. That didn't well with me. I am a VERY trusting person....but I really didn't want to send a stranger over $500 by check. I did some more checking and found that he will take credit card via Paypal, so we are working on that now. As for Kona, I made about 10 calls today and booked a small 1BR 1.5 bathroom condo with a GREAT ocean view. It will be the height of whale season, so we should be able to see many from our lanai (patio). Now I have to work on my summer trips. Nothing exciting - 7 to 10 days in NYC, seeing family and friends, a few days in OKC to see my Dad and my brother, Texas again (for Gerry), with a few little weekend excursions thrown in (Daytona for the NASCAR race July 4th weekend). I'll get lots of good knitting in with all that travelling. I think I should go into the travel business with all this experience I am getting.

Knitting and Flying Around the Country

I tried to post some info last week but somehow, it got lost in cyberspace, so here goes again...

For the past two weeks I have been working on making a present for Gerry. It's fairly warm here in S. Florida so he really doesn't need another sweater, so I decided to make golf club covers for his clubs. He isn't playing golf right now, but they don't go bad so I figured, what the heck. I had several skeins of !00% Peruvian Wool from Knitpicks. Each cover took slightly less than 1 skein (110 yds/50g). The numbers were done with some left over merino yarn, color vanilla. I think they came out really cute. Of course, after giving them to Gerry, he did say thank you and exclaimed over them, but added, "I guess I should throw out my Notre Dame club covers, huh?" I didn't know that he had ND covers (like, that's important to me?). I know he didn't realize it but the dummy guy hurt my feelings just a tad. Doesn't he know that he didn't have to say that? That if he were ME, he would have said, "WOW - these are great!!!" and then used whatever covers he wanted to use. Oh, well....MEN!

Mom an d I visited with Alison and Michael last weekend in GA. Mom had never been there before. She LOVED their house, which is truly beautiful. Now, my mom is honest to a fault and won't exclaim over something if she isn't impressed or delighted. Well, all I heard all weekend was how wonderful the house is (can't argue with her....it is, it is). We had a wonderful time. We took Mom to IKEA. She had never been there before and really enjoyed it. We even had a good, inexpensive lunch there. Saturday night we watched Blue Collar Comedy, a DVD with four funny "Redneck" comedians. On Sunday we kinda hung at home and at night watched Robin Williams on Broadway. Again, Mom really enjoyed! She may be 81 but she looks like she's 65 and is very "with it." Alison took the time to teach me Fair Isle. Below is the hat that I made (it's not blocked yet). It took me about three days. I am SO proud of it! There is a method to this madness....I promised to make Alison a sweater for her birthday (the big 3-0) so she said she wants a Fair Isle pullover. As soon as she finds one that she likes I will get started on it.

We left on Monday, after some fun shopping. Thanks, Alison and Michael, for such a great visit.

On Tuesday Gerry and I flew to Houston, TX. He goes every three months to MD Anderson for tests and a dr visit. It was a quicky visit....in on Tues night, tests all day on Wednesday, see dr on Thursday and leave. We did get to go to Rice Village, a shopping area at Rice University, where we like to eat at Jason's Deli (don't have it here in S. Florida), and got to the Galleria for an hour of just looking around. On Thursday the doctor told us that as far as he can see, Gerry is cancer free and doing well. The treatments that he is taking now (interferon shots at home) make him very, very, very tired, but that's to be expected. Otherwise, he's great! On the way to the airport we got to see my cousin Richie, who lives in Houston. An added treat, to be sure.

When we got home, (and after giving him the golf club covers) Gerry was lamenting that he didn't have a chemo cap. While I pointed out that he luckily didn't NEED one (he hasn't lost any hair), he said it didn't matter....he had cancer and was going thru a treatment, so he wanted a cap. So, I pulled out the newly made Fair Isle hat and told him that he could consider it his chemo cap. Look how happy he looks!!! (Tiemann doesn't look too thrilled,though).