My New Mac

I have been unintentionally delinquent from my blog for a few weeks because I just got...

a new MacBook Pro computer!

Isn't she pretty? I opted for a pink cover because it's my favorite color. (When I go clothes shopping I am drawn to bright PINKS!)

This is such a treat because I have never had a Mac before! I've had many Dells that have lasted three years tops. I have paid for many anti virus programs that seem to get more and more expensive and don't block all the viruses. So this time, after my most recent Dell died, I decided to: Go For The Mac! Or rather my husband did, sort of a Belated-Birthday-Happy-Anniversary-Gift. Thank you Sweet Jim!

The most amazing thing about a Mac is its battery life. My goodness it lasts forever!

But the bad thing is I have to relearn a few things--how to download photos from my camera via the memory card not the cord, the whole i Photo Library, the whole click system instead of just tapping, the left and right "keys" on the mousepad. And apps! There are so many to choose from! I already downloaded a writing app--Scrivener--with the $100 gift card they gave me with their Back To School Promotion. Today I took the time to learn photos on this computer with the help of Becky and Katie (thank you!) and wrote down the steps, lest they are not here...I think I get it!

The Drought of 2012...OVER?

This year, here in Madison, we have had the worst heat and drought since 1994. I remember THAT year, most especially because it was the year Katie was born (in March) and the year we moved into the old colonial home in Oconomowoc (it was over 75 years old) WITHOUT air conditioning. It was the hottest year on record which prompted us to pull together $8,000 the following year and install central air using a contraption called an Octopus that resembled something right out of a Sy Fy movie. It was placed into the attic. But this year has been BAD.

Our neighborhood pond is dry.

Our neighborhood park looks like the aftermath of a great apocalyptic event.

But not to fear...Yesterday and a early this morning we got....RAIN! Glorious rain! ONE HALF AN INCH OF RAIN fell yesterday. And I do believe there are thunderstorms in the forecast for the next five days. So perhaps it's over...the drought of 2012.

LOLLIPOP LAND

My friend Lizanne and I are busily working on the tabletop decorations for the musical our daughters are in, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Over the weekend we went to  one of my favorite locals--Michael's--to buy our crafting supplies. We are borrowing vases from the church where the musical will be performed--Blessed Sacarament--in Madison. We decided to include some type of butterfly on either a pencil or a dowel, but then we kept our options open and just looked around the store.

Here's what we came up with:

Aren't they just adorable?

We used black and gold pipe cleaners and wrapped them around 3/8 " dowels and added the googly eyes with a hot glue gun. While perusing the party aisle we came up with these fabulous lollipop favor kits. The kit included lollipops (which we added to the back of the bees), pink ribbons (which we will tie around the top of the vase), thank you stickers and blank stickers. Lizanne's daughter, Jules, cut wings out of the blank sheets of stickers and her and Katie wrote welcome on them.

Blame it on the heat, another 100 degree day wave this past couple of days, or the drought, but we didn't buy enough dowels so I had to go back yesterday and buy more. Funny how we all use the weather, either the frigid cold of winter or the blustery warmth and humidity of summer as an excuse for our oversightedness. Or is that just me???

At any rate, we are also going to add a fresh daisy and greenery to each vase the day of the show.

THE TAN & BUFF PLAN

My TAN & BUFF PLAN that I began at the beginning of summer is coming along rather nicely...The past couple of weeks I have managed to at least walk Maggie or walk with my neighbor friends EVERY DAY! On top of that I have added two Zumba classes a week to my repertoire and also have added another sculpt class so that I am up to five classes a week at the gym. As far as the healthy tan plan, I have been tanning at the gym pool at least once a week (yes, using LOTS of sunscreen--Number 50 on my face!!) that too is going sunnily....

As a result...

I so look like this now.

(Well almost.)

But seriously, working out makes me HAPPY! I really didn't feel like going to Zumba yesterday but afterwards I was smiling. I realize I'm finally starting to remember some of the moves and make my hips circle around the way they are actually supposed to.

Now the shimmy....that's one I've still got to work on! Katie suggests standing in front of the mirror and practicing. That's the performer in her!

THE WALK TO A PUB

I walk with my neighbor friends Anne and Nanci most days. And one of us came up with the idea that we should walk to a local watering hole and have a cocktail once a week this summer. Sort of a reward for walking all the way from our subdivision to downtown Middleton. Well last night we finally did it. We walked to a new (it just opened last week), very cool restaurant called The Free House, not that the cocktails were free!

The walk there was hot and long so the cocktail I chose was absolutely perfect...

It was called a Wisconsin Iced Tea. Truly refreshing!

MY SUMMER HERB GARDEN

For the past upteen summers I have sat on the deck and viewed the rocks that decorate our yard and thought potted plants would look great there. I've been over to our friend/neighbor's house and envied her terraced herb garden. I have gone to the grocery story and abhorred the ridiculous prices for fresh herbs, packaged in such big quantities when you only need a tablespoon or two at a time. And I have said I should do an herb garden in those pots!

So this year I got off my butt and did just that. I guess what really started it all was that I found potted, plantable herbs at our local grocery store--Copps. And I thought even the grocery store is beckoning me to plant my OWN herbs. I found four pots that I already owned. Bought two plants from Copps--mint and thyme. Then I went to The Bruce Company and bought Basil and Cilantro. I bought little wooden sticks and wrote the names of the plants on them with a black Sharpie. I plopped the two glow in the dark ornaments that Anne bought for me for my birthday in two of the plants. Then I placed both pieces of the hand-painted cup from Rome that broke, into the soil of the thyme plant. The broken cup looks very artsy. I got the idea of it from our library gardener. She's always doing things like that in her beautiful garden. Putting the most random pieces with her beautiful flowers.  (***note*** future blog!)

All in all my garden is growing beautifully. I never knew I had a green thumb! I guess I get that from my mother and grandmother. Both these women had the most amazing flower gardens that they tended every year with perennial and annual flowers that they acquired and shared with friends.

Summer School

I returned to school this past weekend and endured the grueling elements of life on the campus of a major college university....Just kidding! Katie and I decided to take an impromptu trip down to Chicago to visit our darling daughter/sister who is attending Summer School Second Session at Loyola University. We left the day after the Fourth--Thursday--and returned late last night. It was all made downright delightful because we could stay with her in her apartment-style dorm (she has a single), for FREE, overnight parking was only $5.00 a day (I kid you not, I know, I know, it's CHICAGO!), once we parked the car, we could walk to movies, restaurants, and THE BEACH and if we wanted to go anywhere we could hop on the EL because there was an EL stop ACROSS THE STREET.
While we were driving down, the car thermometer actually read 106 degrees for a split second. But no worries, there was the coolness of forced air and...

THE BEACH!!

We enjoyed the shade and watching parents carrying babies through the sand in strollers, kids making sand castles, dogs leaping through the water to catch frisbes and tennis balls, college kids playing bean bag toss, and sailboats gliding across the water.   

We did our share of eating out. The BEST restaurant was the hamburger joint Becky took us to called Bop N Grill. It was featured on a television show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with host Guy Fieri!! The featured item on the menu was the KIMCHEE BURGER (fried egg, chili paste aioli, and cabbage slaw. I know it sounds weird, but Becky assures us, its delish. It's her favorite burger and it's Asian!). But I didn't get that one.

I got this one.

It's called the UNAMI BURGER and is laced with smoked Gouda cheese, mushrooms confit, and sundried tomatoes. It was WONDERFUL. Other note: the bun was phenomenal. Katie got the BAVARIAN BURGER and she said that too was delectable. That burger was on a special pretzel bun and had onions, bacon, mustard and cheddar cheese.  Not to mention the fries! They were truly scrumptious. Next time we go back (and believe me THERE WILL BE A NEXT TIME) we have vowed to try one of their rice dishes.



The best part of our trip was the shopping in downtown Chicago. We went to J Crew, Nordstroms, H & M, Forever 21, Banana Republic, Papyrus and many more stores.

My favorite store: discounted designer clothes!

After all that exhausting shopping we treated ourselves to chocolate chip Frappes at McDonalds.

What a fun trip!! Thank you, Becky!!!!!!!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were all supposed to go canoeing with friends today. I don't know about you, but caneoing in 102 degree, hot and humid weather, does not appeal to me (go ahead, call me a wimp). Instead Jim is helping Becky clean the dorm room that never got cleaned and Katie and I are going to see the FABULOUS movie Magic Mike (why do I want to keep calling the movie BIG MIKE?). Oh, we are going to have so much fun watching hot guys dancing and stripping to groovy songs right there on the BIG SCREEN!

Then Jim and I will join the canoeing folk for cold beer and a cookout at our friends' house. I'm bringing two cold salads. It's going to be a great Fourth of July!

One Lovely Blog Award Nomination

I was just nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award from Becky at Preppy Premed. THANKS SO MUCH BECKY!!! Here are my answers to the questionnaire:

What is your favorite dessert?
Anything chocolate.
Really if you're going to go for a dessert it ought to be chocolate. I don't eat alot of desserts (trying to watch that "girlie figure" HAHA), but when I do I head straight for the CHOCOLATE. If we're watching a movie and Jim says "I'm going to get a dessert, what would you like?" I will ALWAYS respond chocolate cake. Heading for the dessert table at the family reunion (coming up at the end of July) I will head straight for the chocolate cupcakes slathered in chocolate frosting. Frappe from McDonald's? It better be chocolate, or better yet, chocolate chocolate chip. It's a good thing Katie recently resurrected the low-fat Double Chocolate Chip brownies from Nestle's Best Ever Cookies book.

What was your favorite pet?
Eeghads this is a hard one. Seriously. There was the dog I grew up with when I was a child--Peaches. I LOVED that dog who was a mixture of border collie and something else. She was the sweetest dog ever!! But now there is Maggie...my dear, dear Maggie. Who always seems to know when I need a little love or understanding and also, the worst time to annoy me!! So after watching Lassie Come Home on TCM last night (that movie always slays me!) my decision is....to not make a decision. Peaches and Maggie you BOTH will always, always, hold dear places in my heart.

What do you prefer to wear, black or white?
This one is easy. I like to definetely wear black in the fall and winter. Black shoes, black purse, black turtleneck, black boots, etc. But in the spring and summer I do go for the crispness and simplicity of white. I LOVE a simple white t-shirt with shorts.

What is your biggest fear?
ohhhhhhh....My biggest fear is not accomplishing all the things in life I set out to accomplish or was supposed to accomplish through God's plan. So I better get going I am fifty.

What is your attitude mostly?
I would say CHIPPER. That's a good way to describe me. Okay, I'm not always chipper. In fact, this last year with my dad dying and American Airline filing for bankrupty, I haven't been chipper 100% of the time, but I really try!!

YUP, coffee helps keep me CHIIPPER!

What is perfection to you?

Well, except your perfect head is cut off, Daniel Craig!

Seriously, though, I think the whole perfection thing is a trap. One I have fallen into many times. Trying to keep furniture, carpenting and all things perfect, when in fact, the things you use never remain perfect. So instead of trying to always attain perfection, I go for what a neighbor once told me a long time ago--90%--and that percentage just may go down as I get older and older...

What is your guilty pleasure?

Oh, this one is an easy one. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese sprinkled with parmesan cheese and oregano accompanied by peas (it makes me feel less guilty) and rounded out with anything chocolate and a great big glass of Merlot.

Mallards Game/Rythm and Booms 2012

Sometimes the best laid plans chang into even better plans. We have a summer tradition in our family of attending the Mallards Game and Rythm and Booms EVERY year. In the morning we go set up our camp chairs to get the perfect spot to watch the fireworks. The we leave around 3:30 p.m. and walk around and then watch the Mallards Game which begins at 5 p.m.

Well.... this year it was hot. Did I emphasize HOT? It was 97 degrees when we left our home.

So.....

We tailgated for a half an hour, eating Garretts popcorn from Chicago--IN THE CAR! It was THAT hot.

Then we went into the game an hour before it started. Ate burgers, hot dogs, french fries--all the ballpark fare.

We had the best seats. We were eight rows from the diamond.

 My daughters are so beautiful!

The Mallards were doing great--up by three runs. But then things started going downhill around the bottom of the sixth ending. The Mallards started losing. The LaCrosse Loggers (yes, I thought it was cute, too, that the Mallards were playing LaCrosse and Katie is going to college there in the fall. Coincidence? I think NOT!) And then Katie started to feel ill. She had sharp pains in her stomach. So I knew it was time to get her in air conditioning and pack up and head home. Sans the fireworks. When we left the ballpark at 7:30 my car temperature still read 97 degrees!

But that didn't stop us from having fun. Because on the way home we picked up the movie Arthur. We also ran through the McDonald's drive thru and got Becky an M & M Freezie and me a Chocolate Chip Frappe.

It was THAT good!