Show Em If You Got Em!

As the countdown continues to the Uberfabulous Sunfest Sale, over at Stephen Bonanno Sandals, I say post your sandals, if you dare! It actually helps those of us who cannot decide what to get. I admit it, I am a copy cat. The interactive color chart has me spinning at this point! I know I want the Emma Classic Monogram with Emerald and Pomme whipstitch. I am considering getting a pair of Palm Beach Classic. I also want to get Miss Madigan her very own pair. She wears lots of pink so Linaria is the only way to go for her, or is it? These here are Bellflower w/Skye and the well worn pair is Linaria with White. You can clearly see how much I love these babies!

HI Everyone, I just wanted to take a moment and say Thank You to those who stop by and read my ramblings. Blogging is an absolute addiction! I enjoy all of you and I have corresponded with some amazing people out there, none of whom I have actually met. It has been a great way to entertain myself during those down times at work. Please let me know if you want me to add you to my blogroll and I can spread the word about you! Have a great day!

Fine Dining

Last night, we dined at L'Espalier in Boston. I love this restaurant for two reasons. First, is the ambiance. It is situated in a townhoue in Boston's Back Bay on the corner of Newbury and Gloucester Streets. It has distinct dining rooms in different parts of the townhouse. Last night we ate in the library on the second floor. The architecture in the room is original to its 1880 roots. It is very comfortable and romantic.

Second, the food is amazing. The restaurant has an incredible array of original dishes to choose from. The chef chooses the right ingredients to marry into mouth watering offerings. Last night I had a beef loin that sat on a bed of risotto with green onions. Delish! The Doc feasted on halibut and he gave it five stars.

I highly recommend L'Espalier for those of you who may be looking for a great spot to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, or just a night out away from the kids!

Figure This Out!

Holy Cow, what a historical weekend at Fenway Park! The Yankess came to town and subsequently left with their gloves bewteen their legs. Each game was incredible! Friday was drama at its best. Rallying is such a great way to win. Saturday was awesome too, and Sunday was the pinnacle of the weekend series. To make it even better, I sat three rows behind home plate. Sorry folks, I forgot my camera, otherwise I would have had some pretty amazing pictures. In the third inning, there was a sight to behold, four consecutive homeruns! Manny Ramirez, JD Drew, Mike Lowell and my personal favorite Jason Varitek clobbered the ball one after the other and Fenway errupted into madness. It was truly an memorable Boston Sports moment. I do realize the Season is young, but if we keep this pace up.........I can't wait for October!

Storming the Big Apple

Just in time for the fabulous weekend forcast enjoy a full day of non stop fun at American Girl Place. Yes, we are off to the Big Apple tomorrow with one of my best friends and her daughter to experience the thrill of a lifetime for all young girls! Imagine shopping for hours in a huge department store filled with clothing and accessories all just waiting to come home with you (no wonder we are all shopaholics by the time we are 25). Madigan doesn't know we are going here. She just knows we are headed off for an adventure with our friends and that we get to stay in a HOTEL!!!! That is enough to make this the best weekend ever. I can't wait to see her face when we hit 5th Avenue! Madigan has carte blanche tomorrow too. She already has the Bitty Twins and a Just Like You doll that does actually look like her. But, I decided to let her pick out a new one tomorrow with some accessories to go with it. Then, we will sit down and have tea with our new friends. Jealous yet? How about if I throw in the fact that my weekend will get even better on Sunday night when I settle in at Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play the Yankees? I thought so!

Tag, I'm It!

First time tagged (surprising since I can't run very fast) and here it goes:

Three Things that scare me:

1.)Worms
2.)Thunder and Lightening
3.)My bathroom scale

Three people who make me laugh:

1.)Borat
2.)My four year old Madigan
3.)My Dad

Three Things I love:

1.)TiVo
2.)My Cats Tigger and Bailey
3.)My family

Three Things I hate:

1.)Peanut Butter (except Reese's cups strangely)
2.)Going to get my inspection sticker
3.)Wearing wet socks

Three Things I don't understand:

1.)Trigonometry
2.)How men can remember every friggin sports statistic
3.)Ignorance

Three Things on my desk:

1.)Two computers
2.)outgoing mail
3.)too much work!

Three things I am doing right now:

1.)Talking to Blue Cross Blue Shield about an incorrect claim
2.)Adding up a deposit slip
3.)fighting off the urge to go and get an icecream

Three Things I want to do before I die:

1.)See my daughter in her wedding dress
2.)Go to Greece
3.)Go on a trip with my close friends

Three Things I can do:

1.)Use the remote control without looking at the numbers
2.)Make people laugh
3.)Remember birthdays even of casual acquaintances

Three Things I can't do:

1.)Run for longer than one minute
2.)Straighten my hair
3.)Speak Italian

Three Things I think you should listen to:

1.)Classical music to calm you
2.)80s music to get you going
3.)your heartbeat to know you are alive and appreciate every day

Three Things I think you shouldn't listen to:

1.)Rosie O'Donnell (used to like her, now she is just too much)
2.)Rap music
3.)People with chips on their shoulders

Three Things I'd like to learn:

1.)French
2.)How to make a great chocolate souffle
3.)How to be more patient

Three Favorite Foods:

1.)Filet Mignon
2.)Stone Cold Creamery's Orea Overload with coffee icecream
3.)Cookie Dough

Three Shows I watched as a child:

1.)Little House on the Prarie
2.)The Brady Bunch
3.)The Love Boat

Three Things I regret:

1.)Not spending more time with my grandmothers
2.)Not exercising enough this last year
3.)Not finishing projects that I start

I don't think there is anyone out there who hasn't done this yet, but if you are one of them by all means consider yourself tagged!

When Will It Stop?

Ok, this rain, wind, crappy day thing is getting ridiculous. I think I saw Dorothy and Toto fly by my window last night. I know April showers bring May Flowers, but how many flowers do we really need? My backyard is a complete lake at the moment and our inground jacuzzi is now above ground. Anyone ready for a dip?

Our weekend away was great. What a car ride though. I went to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (sounds more classy than UMASS, right?) so I am used to the Mass Pike and its boring, straight, nothing to look it atmosphere, but we had another hour to go after the Palmer exit 8 ramp. We arrived around 9:30pm to slushy rain showers and 34 degree temps. Our room was great. The most comfortable king sized bed I ever had the pleasure of sleeping in held some chilled champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. Being the true romantics that we are, we enjoyed these while watching the Red Sox clobber the Los Angeles Angels. It was right out of a Harlequin romance novel!

Next day, up at 10am and off to a delicious breakfast. I had the omelette du jour which had sauteed spinach and smoked Gouda cheese and some amazing coffee cake. Then we digested for a bit and hit the gym for an hour of cardio while watching E entertainment television. The time passed quickly thank goodness. Then we hung out at the indoor pool and I tried to read but I kept wanting to take a nap so I did. It is great to have the freedom to do this and not feel guilty about it. At 5pm, I had my massage and I chose the deep tissue b/c this girl had bricks in her back. It was followed by a nice pedicure. They needed real acid to get the callouses off my feet! Then a romantic candlelit dinner. It was a great treat to be away.

We left early on Sunday and drove through white out snow conditions for the first 45 minutes of the trip. Then a steady rain followed us home. Madigan had a birthday party to go to for her friend Molly at 2pm. It was fun, but poor Molly. She was supposed to have a pony but the pony couldn't make it due to the weather. Instead, there was a pony pinata. The kids beat the heck out of the thing. I think we are all stir crazy. Maybe there is hope for a sunny weekend?

Ok, breaking news: Just found out I was tagged by Tres Poshe Preppy I will work on that this afternoon!

Whisked Away

A very generous patient of the Doc's gave us a romantic weekend away all for just delivering her new baby. Isn't that amazing? We had to travel between November of 2006 and April 30, 2007. You guessed it, we have waited until the last minute to go (can you say workaholics?). So this is the big weekend away. This is where we are going. I plan to spend my time relaxing like this lady here

I also need to go to the Library to pick up something to read. I heard they have exercise equipment there, but I am not yet sold on that idea. They do have a pretty nice pool, so I will check that out although I may have left all my bathing suits in Aruba. My plan was to leave them there and buy new ones for here. It has not really been over 40 degrees so swim suits have not really been on the brain lately.

3035

0----That sentence is my cat Tigger throwing in his opinion. Tigger and Bailey love to sit on my lap while I am on the computer, so it makes for some challenging typing. I digress, back to the weekend away.

We have a two hour drive according to the website. I need to be the driver because my husband learned to drive on the mean streets of Cairo and is something like a step 38 driver. I, on the other hand, am a step 9. I would like to arrive there in one piece. It will be nice to just do whatever we want on our own schedule. It is going to be 48 hours of bliss. Then, we need to put it into high gear on Sunday to make it back for a birthday party complete with a pony at 2pm and a fundraiser that night at 7pm. By that time, my massage will be a distant memory!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We'll catch up on Monday!

Who Are You?

I thought today we could all participate in a "homework assignment". I want you to email five people who really know you and ask them to describe you in one word. I saw this done a month or so ago on some blogs, but fellow bloggers were answering the question. Now, I realize some of you out there might be the same person you are online as offline. But, there may be some who have their secret, alter cyberspace personalities too. It is much easier to muster up your bravado while typing than in person! So, go to it and come back to report your findings!

Ok, so I got back my five (and generated quite a bit of curiosity as to why I asked!).

I am:

Intelligent

Composed

Generous

Loyal

Convivial/Gregarious

It is nice to hear these things about myself! Thank you to those of you who answered!

Overindulged?

I am still full from all the Easter Goodies consumed on Sunday. It is amazing how much food there was. The best part was that I did not have to make any of it! Honestly, I love to entertain, but there is nothing like being a good old fashioned guest. I got to sit back and chat with the relatives, watch golf (how exciting!) and just leave when the night was over! How nice for me!

It was freezing here in New England, so the Lilly dress definitely looked out of place, but adorable nonetheless. I did not really get any good shots of Madigan because the wind was pretty strong and we had such a busy day running from home, to the hospital so the Doc could round on patients, then to pick up Big Brother Ben and his French exchange student Mathilde who we could only speak English too (thank goodness, mon francais est tres mal!) then to Milford, Mass for the first part of the eating fest. After two hours, we were off to Blackstone, Mass for party #2. Those of you in the know probably don't know where Blackstone is. When I don't know where I town is, I always assume it is out near Worcester. This little slice of heaven is actually located off of Rte. 495 and yes, I spotted several cows. We wrapped things up there at 9 pm and had to an hour the completely opposite way home to bring Ben back to his Mom's house. We got home around 10:3opm, so it was a long day.

Now, I am off to the office for three straight days of a Webex training session for our new computer systems, lucky me! Have a great day everyone!

Easter Bunny is the new Santa?

On this the Eve of Easter 2007, I have come to realize that Easter is the Spring version of Christmas. People are out buying all sorts of crazy stuff for their children's Easter baskets. Correct me if I am wrong, but circa the 1970's, we were lucky to get a few jellybeans and M&M's thrown under all that Easter grass and maybe some bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Nowadays, kids are getting bikes, American Girl dolls, and everything else but the kitchen sink. Even my own 4 year old asked when she could make her Easter Bunny list. List? How about you be grateful for the few trinkets I have actually had time to pick up already? So now, in addition to being one of the thousands of mother's trying to find the perfect white pair of shoes and tights with hours left until Easter, I have to fulfill a wish list? Don't even get me started on the religious importance of the holiday.

In the morning, I hope we don't have a spoiled child on our hands. I am really hoping the Reese's cups will bail me out. We have a very busy day tomorrow. My husband's family is from Egypt. They are Coptic Orthodox which is very similiar to Greek Orthodox. Usually, their Easter falls after the traditional American Easter. This year, it is the same day. We have to go to two different celebrations for his family. Why can't one Aunt just have everyone over? Each has to do their own thing which is a hastle for me. I really don't want to be forced to eat at two different houses either. These Egyptian women will notice if you haven't eaten your share too. The guilt they can place on you rivals that of Jewish Mothers! Madigan is sure to have a tough day too. She is by far the youngest child in the family, so they will all be very excited to see her which is fine. But, when there are 50 people squeezing your face and speaking to you in Arabic, it gets a bit scary. She also always falls asleep in the car on the way to the promised land, so she will be shy for the first hour. The first one to offer her a Lindt Truffle and their high-heeled shoes will be the winner.

Make sure you all post pictures of your children in their Easter finest. It is too bad the weather is not likely to cooperate her in New England. 40 degrees does not make a perfect day for a Lilly dress! Enjoy your families, friends, and food!

Book Club

So last week I had book club. The chosen novel for the month was Strangled, by Brian McGrory. For those of you who are local to Boston, you may be familiar with Brian McGrory who is a columnist for the Boston Globe. He also covered the White House during the Clinton Administration. This was his fourth work of fiction published. I loved it. It reopens the case of the Boston Strangler and Albert DeSalvo who many law enforcement officials do not believe was the actual killer. The book has a lead character, Jack Flynn who has a sarcastic sense of humor throughout the tale.

The best part about book club was that our hostess works with the illustrious Mr. McGrory at the Boston Globe and she somehow convinced him to be our guest speaker. I have to give the guy credit. It can't be easy to show up to a house full of women drinking wine/beer and hear complete novices rip apart your book. He seemed a bit nervous and no one wanted to sit next to him! Once the Q&A started though, I thought it went well. We had some great questions for him and he was a good sport. The odd thing was his cell phone went off about every five minutes (to his credit, it was on vibrate). We all think he told someone to call him so he could escape just as you would for your best friend who is on a blind date. He stayed for a good hour, then ran out with some excuse that he was late for something. He did not want to have coffee and desserts with us? Isn't that weird??

I would recommend this book to any of you readers out there who like mysteries with a slight comic twist to them. Also, I enjoyed all the Boston references in the book. Give the guy a chance and purchase his book. He is trying to save for a vacation house in Maine!

How do you do it?

I am truly amazed at you Bloggers who can come up with great content each and every day. I want to have a great blog, but I don't want it to be boring. You all must have been born with a creativity gene or something!

Around here it is snowing, Yes, that is right snowing. I left work and it was coming down pretty fast but turning into slush upon impact. Thankfully, our beloved Red Sox are not in town. That would make for an awful Fenway experience. Tonight's game will be great to watch to see if Josh Beckett has improved at all since last year. I know he had a great Spring Training, but the proof is in the pudding as they say. Tomorrow is the long awaited debut of the most expensive recent aquisition to the squad: Dice-K Unfortunately, most of us won't even be able to see it since the game is on at 2:10pm. Who, for the love of all that is good and holy, is that a good time for? A two year old just waking up from a nap? I could TiVo it, but I won't because by the time I can watch it, the details will be all over the news. Can you believe I have such problems? I guess I just have to be satisfied with the American Idol Results Show tonight. There is no telling what could happen!