I've Just Got To Say Something...

I try to keep my blogs on the positive side, however, I've just got to say something about this...
I've had a subscription to Woman's Day Magazine for quite awhile. I've never cancelled it because every now and then there's a good recipe or crafty project to keep my interest and I've always recycled it to my neighbor, Jan. So what's my beef?

This month's edition had a piece on 4 or 5 different women getting a makeover before their class reunions. In the old Woman's Day Magazines that might have included a snappy new haircut/hairdo, some make-up and some snazzy outfits. Pretty harmless stuff. And who doesn't want that killer outfit that makes you look 10lbs thinner! Well times have certainly changed... now these "makeovers" include Botox, Restalyn and some lip plumping with collagen. I think that's just WRONG to start pimping invasive procedures (yes, getting fluids inserted under your skin is invasive) to solve all your beauty woes. They even have the nerve to tell you how much the procedure cost as if $350 for some Botox is a drop in the bucket. AND does anybody truly know what happens to all that stuff they're injecting? I still find it hard to believe that women are that insecure as to liposuction, inject & implant themselves for a brief moment of vanity. I say "brief" because it seems that those women always find something else that needs fixing and a new beauty deadline to meet.

To each his own... I'm lucky the gals I choose to hang out with and who I call friends--have beauty from within. Their inner beauty translates to outer beauty and they are inspiring to me. Those are the women I want to read about.

I've passed the magazine onto Jan, who I'm sure will find a nice place for it in the trash where it belongs.

40th Birthday Las Vegas Style

My Michigan friend, Audrey, turned 40 this past weekend. She got a surprise plane ticket, Celine Dion show tickets from her spouse Collin, sister Bonnie, brother Gary and Dad. I chipped in with a stay at the Venetian (We stayed in the Venezia Tower). We had a great time. Of course with everything new to Audrey (It was her first time there) we couldn't see everything. Guess we'll have to do this trip again. Below is Audrey in Las Vegas' Paris.



The cool glass ceiling in the Wynn Hotel or maybe it was the Bellagio... I can't quite remember.


We had a pedicure and manicure at the Canyon Ranch Spa at the Venetian. We had very happy and pretty toes afterwards. Here is Audrey relaxing in the massaging pedicure chair.


Audrey with her Celine Dion ticket before the show. By the way, I'm not much of a Celine Dion fan but I have to admit, she puts on a great show!

Mother's Day

We had Mother's Day dinner at Karen & Dan's house. I got the Mom-Son's photo with a little work. There was the "pull-my-finger" photo before this... Needless to say, Moms are always Moms especially when their kids refuse to grow up! Thank you Karen for all the prep & tasty wok'd green beans. Thank you Wanda for being an excellent Mom. I reap the benefits of a well raised son everyday.

Our New Car

We got a call from Bell Honda that our Honda Fit was here and ready to be picked up. We were actually dreading going in to the dealership... we thought for sure they were going to present us with numbers that were way above what we wanted to pay. It turned out they were pretty close. I think it's the fastest car deal we've ever made. With the Element already sold we were able to write a check and drive away in an hour. I wasn't quite sure if the color would be a wierd orange color--but it turned out to be more copper colored than orange. I like it!

Time Goes By...

It's hard to believe that it will be a year tomorrow since my grandfather, Tom Jackson, passed away. I certainly have missed him. I was lucky enough to collect pictures from my Mom, Aunt's and Uncles--so I have a nice collection of images on my computer. I chose this one to honor his memory a year later. My grandparents loved to sail out on Lake Michigan and we all enjoyed spending time with them at Sutton's Bay.

Pinnacle Peak

I took the day off from rowing and went for a hike with Matt instead. We hiked Pinnacle Peak. The cactus are blooming and the Ocotillo's are all green. I took my camera today to fullfill a panorama photo assignment. I think I had a bit to much light but nonetheless I think I demostrated my ability to meet the assignment.

Stumptuous!

Today I had a sculling meeting with a new club that I joined. I was given a sample training calendar and grimaced at the 3 days listed "Weights". Sure, I definitely know the benefits. Afterall, I was the thinnest, strongest and most healthy when I pumped iron at the MSU weight club many moons ago. But as the years went by, my weight training regime became obsolete. I do know that I need to get back to weights if I want to become a better sculler. One of the girls mentioned the website Stumptuous.com . I've been sitting here reading it and it is refreshing, funny and motivating. This chick (Kristi) cuts right to chase. I especially love her "crap list". Girlfriends--give this site a read. If anything it is funny--and maybe it will give you that motivation you're looking for to do what we all know will make us stronger now and as we creep into our golden years!

Rowing the New Boat

Matt went with me to Tempe Town Lake to check out my new sculling shell. He snapped a few pictures for my blog. I’ve decided on a boat name and am going to get it printed on vinyl sometime soon. I’ll let you know what it is after it’s on my boat. I’m really enjoying sculling on my schedule and in my own boat. When you’re concentrating on each stroke, all the little worries of the day disappear.

A New Home for the Element

Our Honda Element was getting sad and lonely sitting covered in our driveway. We seem to always be driving the Insight around town as it gets great gas mileage. The Element did pretty well for a small SUV but we felt another car would be more practical. A nice, young, hardworking couple with a little boy purchased it. We met them at their bank and exchanged title for funds. I think they are quite happy with getting a like new vehicle that will get much better mileage than the vehicle they had.

On the way home, we stopped and put a deposit down on a Honda Fit. They've been around in Europe as the Honda Jazz. Honda just "rolled them out" yesterday. Of course, the dealerships only have one or two and not with what we want on it. So we just test drove one and left a deposit. We should see our new Fit sometime mid-May.

It was kind of sad to drive away from our Honda Element. I really liked it. However, selling it to nice people made me feel better.

Spring in the Desert

This is the time of year where the cactus are blooming and it's starting to warm up.** Our winter visitors leave town, we start to set our alarms clocks to get up before the sun and put the sunscreens back on the windows. We'll start getting phone calls from our friends in cooler places who think we must be sooooooooo hot. It's the same cycle every year. To be honest--I have to say that I've really enjoyed the great weather we had all winter long and am looking forward to staying inside and focusing on some work projects this summer. I'll still be outside but very early in the morning and in the evenings. I'm also looking forward to early morning rows at Tempe Town lake ( I get my new sculling shell this Tuesday).

I've had my Aunt Jill & Uncle Steve in town over the last month. They just left today --but we'll be seeing lots more of them when they come back Arizona in September to move into their new home (they bought a house in Mesa). With them here--I'm sure I'll be seeing more of my cousins and family then in previous years. So here we go into the dry hot summer but in our nice cool house. Hope everyone enjoys their Summer!

**For those of you that think we're hot today-- well, we're not. It's a beautiful 75 degrees with breezes. Sculling on Easter morning was great!

I Need YOUR Creativity!

It's been quite some time since I posted to this blog since I've been posting to So Say We All (There's a cool dolphin photo on that blog). I'll try and post to both places just to keep those that have this site bookmarked happy.

This blog is to ask for some creative help. Most of you know that I've been sweep rowing and sculling for over a year now. My favorite is sculling--which brings me to your ideas. This month my NEW sculling shell will arrive at Tempe Town Lake. It's a Maas flyweight and is an open water, racer type shell. While I'm waiting--there's a few things I've been thinking about. First, I opted for a plain white shell so that I could create my own hull and oar design. Second, I'd like to name my boat. That's where I'm stuck. It can't be to "girly" of a name and it should be something to do with being on the water, sculling, and it shouldn't be anything like "sea turtle" as that would imply that it's not a FAST boat! It would also be cool if it was a graphical name. In other words, my hull and oar design could match.

So my friends... got ideas? I'd love to hear them. If I like it and choose yours, there may be a special "Thank You!" gift coming your way.

p.s. "Smoke on the Water" is already taken by one of my sculling instructors. He said it's going to be hard to top that ... I take that as a challenge!

New Kitty Clubhouse

The Diethelm kitties are so spoiled. From the moment “Brown” (a.k.a. UPS) dropped the box off they wanted to know what was inside. Sparky supervised the assembly. Pepper had to climb to the very top pedestal. She’s the Queen, so it’ only appropriate.

Maybe One More...

... blog. The thing I love about working on my Mac is...well, it's a Mac. Apple is always thinking of ways to make technology easy to use. I ordered the new iLife software with iWeb on it and within minutes I've got a new website & blog "So Say We All..." . What's cool about iWeb is that you can easily make a website with a blog AND podcasts if you want.

I plan to use "So Say We All..." (you'll know this saying if you watch Battlestar Galactica) as a travel blog. I'll test it out during our trip to New Zealand. So bookmark it and check for pictures of sheep, Hobits, more sheep, Dwarves, some more sheep and maybe an Elf. Or maybe you'll just see some really nice pictures of a beautiful place!

Cool Way to Find New Music

Matt & I were listening to one of his geeky podcasts Inside the Net on the way home from dinner this weekend and they were talking about Pandora. It's very cool. You basically type in a favorite artist or song and it will give you the opportunity to listen to similar artist and music types in your browser. Many of the artists may be new to you. You can refine your tastes by telling Pandora that you like it or not and build different music lists. You can also just click and buy from iTunes or Amazon etc. Go ahead...try it!

I'm Sold!

I'm in the spring cleaning mode and have decided to go for clutter-free, clean lines, light and bright. I have some odds and end furniture that's a bit chunky and more fitting for the Southwestern, Rustic decor... so today I decided to try Craig's List which is fee free listing site for local areas. I posted a nightstand with pictures and within 15 minutes of posting I had 5 gals that wanted to drive out and get it! So I let the first one that e-mailed me have first dibs. She was at my house in a half hour and she ended up taking the nightstand AND the chair pictured above ( I had listed after the table). I threw in some throw pillows and a lamp.

Also, before listing my nightstand, I responded to a guy that was looking for a nice futon. I sent him a picture of the one I have that is taking up to much space. He is coming by tomorrow. So I'm thinking this is WAY BETTER than a garage sale. People are coming to me and taking my stuff away and paying to do it!

So if you haven't had a chance to check out the Craig's List in your area--I highly recommend it!

New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year everyone! No pictures for this blog, just commentary. Sorry. Maybe I'll snap a picture later that will make it to the blog before the end of the day.

My New Year's resolution....well, I usually don't make a New Year's resolution because I find that the "lose weight" resolution is way to convenient and rarely attainable. However, this year I have one that I think everyone can relate to. I saw a segment on Rocketboom on "Freeganism". Basically, a group of extreme vegans who meet up outside grocery stores before the garbage trucks pull up and forage for still edible veges, fruits, and packaged foods that are just being thrown out. I witnessed them collecting Odwalla fruit juices that didn't expire for a couple of weeks. Those cost at least $3.00 for a small drink container! They also collected bags of lettuce, vegetables, fruit and baked goods that were still pristine in their packages.

I'm not willing to hang outside the local Safeway at 5:00 a.m. for free goods-- but recognize that Americans in general are huge "wasters". So my New Years resolution is to start "E-ganism". That means being less wasteful. I'll accomplish this by filling up a small "basket" at the store instead of a cart. Perhaps even walking the mile or so to the grocery store to limit how much I buy since I'll be carrying it home.

So there it is--an "E" New Year's resolution that's obtainable. Maybe you'll think it's worthy to add it to your New Year's resolution list.

Big 80 Birthday for Bud!

Tonight we went to my neighbor Bud's surprise Birthday party. I think he was expecting a quiet dinner out with his wife, Barbara, daughter Joan, her husband Kerry and some friends. Little did he know it was a BUNCH of friends, family and neighbors. It was a really fun party. We're especially grateful to have Bud (a.k.a. Leo Ryan) in our "hood". He's a spry 80--so I suspect this party is just going to continue. For you party attendees, I've uploaded some of the pictures on my home page. Here's the link to view the slideshow Pictures from the party.

Jr. Birdman

I always talk about what great neighbors I have... one in particular deserves some special attention. Yes folks, I have to deal with this character Tom who lives next door! Always willing to help out, even if he has to put on his happy face.

Hey, I warned you Tom!

So Lucky...

Ok...so I've uploaded the cute pet picture instead of what my Christmas cookies looked like after they were baked. I suppose I could of skipped a picture but I'm thinking the expectation level is there. All that blog pressure! I have to admit--after cooking 3 different batches of cookies and cleaning up after--I'm beat! So why even blog??

This is why...
While baking cookies and cleaning up, I thought about how lucky I am. Lucky to have nice neighbors, nice friends, nice in-laws and out-laws, nice husband, parents, a brother who lives close by and furry friends who all get along and make me smile.

2005 has been a year of great loss.... my grandparents, Tom & Mable, and a really nice neighbor, Jean. I've taken to my grandmother's rug hooks and feel her watching me as I try and finish her unfinished projects. My neighbor Jean hopefully was smiling when I used one of her big glass blown plates for cookie baking. I found it discarded in a dumpster outside her house after her kids cleaned it out. I know she would have gotten a kick out the fact that was I willing to dig through a dumpster to save something that she might have liked too.

It's the little things that keep the people we love close-- even when they're gone. I'm looking forward to 2006 but I won't forget those that won't be joining me and who meant so much to me.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all my family, friends & neighbors. I'm honored to start a new year with all of you!

Finally, It's done!

This morning I FINALLY got to take a shower in my newly remodeled shower. The frameless glass shower door was put on yesterday and it looks great. I love that there are no rails to clean and it fits perfectly. I'm quite pleased with how my bathroom project turned out. The water flows right to the drain and no leaks anywhere. Plus with all the morning light flooding the bathroom this morning--reflecting off the glass--it was bright and cheery. Matt's quite happy that all my "girlie" shower stuff is out of the guest bath (which he's claimed for himself), however, I think he's wanting me to get going on my other projects so I can make his bathroom as nice.

Next up... Master bedroom floors and painting.