on the 10th day I rested

After nine straight days of work I turned a half day off into a full day. And boy did I need it. Greg needed it too. I was getting a little cranky around the house. So how did I spend my day so far? Here are the bullet points:
+ Woke up around my regular time. Why didn't I sleep in? Well because I just had to know, where in the world was Matt Lauer. He was in Laos, by the way.
+ Walked the Tuckster around the block, took a shower, had a bowl of Lucky Grahams cereal, watched some Regis and Kelly.
+ Car danced to Madonna's new CD on the way to Target. It's an incredible album, her best in many many years. Would make a great work out soundtrack if I could ever find my way back to the gym.
+ Did a spot of shopping at Target and then went to Border's to pick up Augusten Burroughs' new book. It's not received kind reviews, but I'll still read it. He's been one of my favorite authors. I got to take him to the airport when he was at our library several years ago.
+ Chicken burrito bowl at Chipotle for lunch. Don't worry, I didn't go to the one in Kent. Followed by a passion tea lemonade from Starbucks.
+ Swung by Pettiti's Garden Center to pick up some purple pansies to fill some holes in the front flower bed. Came home, planted the pansies, deadheaded the daffodils, and transplanted a day lily from the back bed to the front bed.
+ Watched Martha that was recorded from earlier in the day.
+ Ran to the grocery to pick up ingredients for tonight's dinner of Penne and Chicken Rustica. It's a recipe from the cooking classes I went to this Spring. I've made it once before, Greg's a big fan.
+ Prepped some of the ingredients for tonight, then spent some time on the patio reading magazines. That's a picture, up there, of our new patio cushions. They do a nice job of bringing the color pallete of our living room outside to the patio.
+ It has been a super terrific day. I've not even checked email from work. That's a major accomplishment for me.
+ Greg will be home soon, time to get dinner rolling.

rant of the day

I despise Dr. Phil. That's it.

mmmmpppphhhhh

It's been a long week. Today is day 7 in a row at work. Just 7 more to go. That's right kids, 14 straight days of work. Last week was fairly uneventful. The weather was beautiful. I probably should have done some clean up work in the flower beds, but I came home Tuesday and all the beds had been edged and the backyard bed had been cleaned up. Finally, my procrastination has paid off. Wednesday I was re-elected to our Condo Association Board. I ran unopposed. Friday, I had a late night at work. Greg is on-call all weekend and next week. He's been busy watching the NFL draft this weekend while I'm at work.

happy belated earth day

saturday color

Silk scarves at the City Buddha on Conventry.


Bedazzled purses at the City Buddha.


Colorful house in Cleveland Heights.


The forsythia bushes in the neighborhood are in bloom.


Pansies in front of our house.

say cheese

This is where $20 of my weekly allowance will be going for the next 5 or so months. I'm saving up for a new camera. It officially is available in mid-May. So that will give me plenty of time to read reviews and see if this is the actual camera I want to drop that type of change on. Looks like I will be brown-bagging my lunch this spring and summer.

another weekend

Another weekend is finally upon us. And I still haven't recapped last week's very busy weekend. So here goes. I'm sure I'll leave some details out.
Friday I had lunch with my friend Sarah at Chrissie Hynde's restaurant Vegiterranean. It was my first time there since it opened last fall. The decor was nice. We sat at a high-top table. The stool was kind of uncomfortable. But I suppose that If I were the size of most non-meat eaters, it would have been a more comfortable fit. Sarah and I shared a pizza (see photo) and each got a salad. The crust of the pizza was fantastic. The fake non-melty cheese not so much. But it wasn't awful. I wasn't brave enough to try the garden "chicken" or "steak." On the way out I stopped by the bakery and picked up a beautiful chocolate cupcake to take home to Greg. And, as I've often heard, and know from experience, beauty comes with a price. $6 to be exact! That's right, a $6 cupcake in Akron. It was tasty, but really...$6? I always enjoy my lunches with Sarah, we need to have them more often.
Saturday we had the Akron Pride Center's Annual Dinner at the Greek Community Center. The dinner was good and the group at our table was a lot of fun. We were seated with our friends Tom & Brett,their friends Mike & Mike, and the DJ and his wife. We had lots of laughs and Tom won the centerpiece at the table. Funny how he organized the event and won the centerpiece? Just kidding. Tom and his committee put together a great event. This event officially kicked off the building campaign for the new Pride Center in Firestone Park. The group hopes to raise around $100,000 in the next three years to renovate the building they purchased for the new center.
Sunday we had dinner at Chris and Shannah's. They live on the street behind us and Shannah serves on the condo association board with me. Dinner was fabulous and it was good to hang out with neighbors close to our age. Most people in the neighborhood are older and retired.
Well that was last weekend. Not too much to report from this past week. On Wednesday night I helped to judge a United Way children's art contest. And there have been lots of wildlife around our house. Several days we had several deer in the backyard. There's also a cute mallard duck couple that must have a nest nearby. They are frequently waddling down the street and into our yard.

more daffodils

Another of my daffodil varietis has begun blooming. It sports the white petals and vibrant yellow cup. My last variety, the all white daffodils, are close to blooming and will hopefully open this weekend. I'd like to be able to cut some of all of the varieties for a mixed bouquet. In addition, my allium have begun to sprout from the ground. I believe this is the earliest start they have had since i planted the bulbs three years ago.

bye bye rye rye

Our good friend Ryan just got a new job in Detroit and will be leaving the Akron area in the next couple of weeks. (If you are looking to purchase a condo in Stow, drop me a line and I'll send you a link to Ryan's listing.) We are going to miss Ryan and his enthusiasm for all things Big Brother, Amazing Race and American Idol related. He has some strong opinions and is very passionate about his like or dislike of the contestants. In addition to being a great friend, he's also a good tennis player, and it's too bad that he and Greg didn't get enough of a chance to whack the ball back and forth. Last night we went to Crave for a "See You Later" dinner, because there are no goodbyes, just see you laters.
Michele, Ryan and Megan at Crave

Greg and me

in bloom

My first spring flower bloomed this afternoon. A simple but proud daffodil. I planted three varieties of daffodils two autumns ago. They are poking through the ground with full force this year. Last year they were tormented with a snowy and icy spring. While tulips are my spring flower of choice, I just don't have much luck getting them to bloom from year to year. I'm impatient when it comes to cutting the spent blooms and leaves back as summer approaches. At that point I want to clean up the beds and move on to summer annuals. The daffodils, on the other hand, are very low maintenance and seem to come back year-after-year stronger and with more blooms.

it's been a while

I received a gentle email reminder from Michele this morning that I have not posted anything on the blog in a while. Sorry for the lapse. I was getting back into the swing of things at work again after my vacation, and I guess I just didn't have much to say.
So where did I leave off...well I finished cookie week. Sent Martha an email about it with a link to my blog. Haven't heard back from her. Greg was on-call for work last week. That's always fun with the middle-of-the-night phone calls. Two Sunday's ago I went to my sister's for Macy's 6th birthday party. She was joined by 9 other six year olds with big bouncy balloons that were careening all around the living room. Rebecca's birthday is a few days later. My dad, who was visiting, got both girls a set of roller skates.
After the party, I brought dad up to our place. On the way we stopped off to visit my grandmother. She is my mother's mother and my only grandparent still living. This last visit was difficult. She's having a hard time concentrating and there were very long lulls in conversation. I remember how she helped my dad after my mother died. She lived in an apartment behind our house and made dinner and took great care of us.
Last Monday, I took my dad back to the airport and ran errands. Our friend Brett came over and installed the new ceiling fan in our master bedroom. He's quite a handy guy. He had it up and whirling in under an hour.
Tuesday it was back to work. Pretty uneventful. Saturday was a long day at work. We had our annual gardening symposium. There were many great programs. Ian Adams, an area photographer, took us on a photographic journey of many lovely parks and garden in Ohio. I've made a list of several that I would like to visit this spring and summer. Greg got a new haircut and now sports a part. Sunday was for relaxing...and that brings us to today. I'm sure that I missed stuff, and I will try to do a better job of updating the blog this week.
Below are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Dad at the girl's party


Macy and Becca with their stacks of presents


Macy and Dora skates


Becca speeding by on her new rollerblades


An old picture of me and my grandmother