What comes after a Murphy's Law Monday????

A 'Feeling Under Pressure' Tuesday, of course!

Did you ever feel like a pressure cooker or

a whistling kettle with steam coming out?

I sorta feel that way (already) today.

One way I decided to lessen the pressure was

to take a few minutes to 'release' it on the blog

and you, my faithful (foolish) readers!  Love ya!

Yesterday was a day from H-E-double hockey sticks yet

I knew today would be similar.

See today, I have increased my work load by

six-fold having to attend six training sessions v. only the

original one yesterday so all the North American peeps'

schedules could be accommodated.  UGH!

So today, my feelings of 'Feeling Under Pressure'

stem from 'too many'.... "Too many what?", you ask.

Too many...

• emails
• meetings
• follow ups
• phone calls
• projects

So, I'll attack these 'too many's' by breaking them down

into manageable, smaller pieces and as I accomplish each

piece, I'll check it off so I can see my progress,

little as it may be,

progress nonetheless.

Hopefully seeing progress will alleviate the pressure and

see me through this blasted day!

What comes after Murphy's Law Monday,

Tantilizing Tuesday!

Oops gotta run to my 11!

Can't wait for Wonderful Wednesday ;)

Murphy's Law and Mondays...

Used to be Rainy Days and Mondays always got me down.... now it's

Murphy's Laws and Mondays

Been working on an IT project for over 5 months with a

vendor's IT Dept and today was the day I was to

roll it out to the group of Sales people I gathered

for the TEST phase.

As my luck would have it,

the vendor did something (update, whatnot, etc)

over the weekend that has made the Test Site

inoperable.  SURPRISE!!!!

With less than five minutes warning,

I was left to continue with the conference call

only to announce the Test training could not be done

at this time.

ARGH!!!!! Lucky the vendor was not within

arm's reach or I would have strangled my account rep.

What a way to start the week,

M stands for Mondays

M stands for Murphy's Law

put them together and what do you have

No, not M&M's silly,

my world of course!

Welcome to it.

Be careful what you wish for...

I've been around the block a few times and I'm no spring chicken.  I've learned that you have to be careful what you wish for because sometimes you do get it but not exactly the way you had hoped.

So, this all comes about because I recently have found myself thinking, "Gosh, I would sure like to have the place to myself, even for just a few hours...to be alone, in silence with no one to ask me for something, ask me to do something, ask me if I wanted something.... peace and quiet."  Ahhhh, that would be heaven.

Now I know better to really, really want that because some day I may wake up and find myself a very lonely old lady who gets no visitors and no one to love me and that would suck big time.  Afterall, I consider myself a 'people' person.  I usually love to be surrounded by family and friends but boy oh boy, I don't get a break.

Tonight as we ate dinner, I had a conversation with my mother about this, saying it out loud yet deep down not meaning this is how I want to live forever, just for a little bit.  My mother, for whom I have the utmost respect, after listening to me said, "You are a mircle woman.  I don't know how you do it everyday but you do.  I certainly did not have to deal with all that you have and I can fully understand the need to be alone for a bit.  Don't regret feeling this way, it's a way for you to release all that bombards you daily."

Wow, I was kinda caught off guard.  A miricle woman?  Geez, I've been called Wonder Woman before and thought that was pretty good, but never a miricle woman. 

So as I finally am able to sit and express myself in this cathartic blog and hear the crickets outside I am thinking... a miricle woman, how the heck am I to live up to that?  Oh, and I really don't want to be alone forever, just for a short spell so I can hear the crickets at night and the birds sing in the morning.

Now for another wish....Lord, please tell me the #'s to Saturday's Powerball so I can buy a place big enough to find some alone time.  There I go again.

What a difference a week makes

A little ditty for your reading pleasure :)

Well the scale finally tipped in my favor

This past week I'll cherish and savor

I dropped 8.4

By myself, me amore

Now to hold the course and not waver!

eat pray love & trattoria guiseppe's

Went to see the new Julia Roberts movie, eat, pray love

as part of my 'Get Out Of Jail FREE' weekend.

I have always enjoyed Julia Roberts' movies.  This movie,

however, was a refreshing change for her.  You see, she wasn't

totally written as another 'Pretty Woman' character (I loved that

movie but sometimes you can get type-cast and alot of her

successive moves tended to do that to her.)  In eat, pray, love,

Julia's character is a seasoned woman who still does not feel

her life has been fulfilled.  She pulls this off perfectly.

When I go to the movies, I believe a movie is great when

it can take me away to where they are and I can forget

about the present.  This movie was able to suck me in and make

me believe I was in Italy, India & Bali along with the character.

 

At one point, I really wished I was in Italy the food was so delish

looking on screen, I wanted to be next the characters eating

Proscuitto and Melon.

Following the movie, we went out to eat at one of my favorite

restaurants, Trattoria Guiseppe.  I am never disappointed with

my meal and this visit was no different.

For an appy, there was Proscuitto a Melon BUT I did not order

any ONLY because I ordered the most amazing chicken gorgonzola

and it came with mashed pototoes & green beans almondine - oh so

YUMMY!

As well, we wanted to split an order of tortellini in a blush sauce so I

skipped the appy altogether... but next time, yes, next time.

My second day was spent heading out to church to thank God

for all he's given me which was followed by a lazy day vegging in

my bed watching tv and cyberspacing.

All-in-all, I pretty good weekend.  Now it's back to the old

bump n' grind tomorrow!

P.S. (Soundtrack of eat, pray, love was awesome... may even buy it

if I can find it.)

Weekend's are for...

Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless. ~Bill Watterson

 

... doing something completely pointless.  I'll need to digest that for a bit.

 
I have a 'Get outta Jail FREE' weekend ahead and I have no idea what I will do with it. Would be nice to collect $200!
 
I could;

• get to cleaning out that spare bedroom
• travel and visit a friend
• spend the days shopping away, my favorite past time
• catch up on all the sleep I miss throughout the week
• work on organizing my closet, something that takes H-O-U-R-S yet not a soul sees that you've done A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G!!!!
• plan my meals for the week and go to the food store to find 'new' things to try
• spend time with my sister and/or mother
• just about anything and nothing

As hard as it is to figure out what I could do,
I am very much looking forward to being able
to play it by ear and do whatever suits my fancy.

BTW, not sure that using that three (3) letter word (sex)
drove more visits to my blog but I plan to take MK's advice
about censorship should I see a need.  I am thinking (again)
of changing my mind and only trying to increase blog post
frequency...faithful readers...any other thoghts?

Have a great weekend, I plan on it!

Tain smeadic o bog ad etin mrehis

I removed every third character or space

from the below sentence to come up with

the Title of today's blog. 

It should have read,

"Taking some advice on blogs and getting more hits."

Sure looks different with all the

characters present &

makes more sense to boot!

I've recently heard that in order to get more followers

and hits to your blog,

one should write a blog everyday

with some type of information.

Information that's new, useful to the reader and

on a user-friendly website.

Well I'm batting .333 'cause

my website sure is user-friendly, LOL.

Another bit of information I heard

was helpful in getting hits and readers

to your website is to use the word

sex in your blog. 

I guess those who blog

love to search for sex

because it was said if you

insert the word sex into your blog

you will get tons of hits.

I'll keep you posted on that one.

In the meantime, I will try to post

more frequently to see if that increases

my 'viewership' AND I will try to post

something that is useful...

Let the thinking begin...

hmmmm

Signed,  ~The Thinker :-)

I'm having a down night....

... because I went up... 

don't even want to think about it.

I know what I need to do, 

it's just finding the strength and energy to do it,

oh yeah, and the DISCIPLINE to do it.

Tomorrow is another day but until then,

I am having a down night.

Ever meet my friend Debbie?

Give me a break...

and I will come back refreshed.

Had a few days vacation down the Jersey shore doing what I love best...

spending time with family.

• Did some beach time ~ Got sunburnt, as is par for the course with my fair skin even with sun block.
•  
  
• Did some shopping ~ didn't buy a thing and that makes hubby happy!
• Did some dining ~ with my two youngest kids.
• Did some toe, ankle, calf, knee, thigh dipping ~ with my three youngest kids (yes, even the pregnant one who, may I add times have changed, went to the beach in her 'Daisy Duke' bikini she wore last year and looked absolutely beautiful in her 36th week baby bump!
•  
  
  
  
  
• Did a little Ghost Tour at night....ooooOOOooohhhhhhhHHHHHHhhhh
•  
  
• Did some boating and para-sailing ~ first time doing so and L-O-V-E-D it... so much fun.  Makes my desire to parachute from an airplane that much stronger. One of the things on my bucket list.
•  
  
• Spent final, beautiful night with a sky filled with stars, much more brilliant at the shore than at home.

Arrived safe and sound back home, only to run out and pay bills (and shop some more!)

Ah, one more day to enjoy before heading back to work on Monday... I needed this break and enjoyed it even more.

There's always your first time....

Last night it was one of those 'typical' nights as 
a group of us decided to 

"Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd..."

My cousin got to throw the first pitch of the game to the Phillie Phanatic!

How exciting is that?  
We thought it was...however...  

• due to work location,  
• WW stop for weigh in,  
• [found a pound, darn :-( ] 
• trip home to change clothes,  
• stop to pick up my passengers, 
• traffic down near the ball park, 
• attempt at finding a parking space 
• walk through parking lot to get to ball park,

WE MISSED THE FIRST PITCH! Yikes!

(Luckily, one person in our group did see it and got pix to boot!)

It was another very HOT, HUMID night at the ball park and 

our seats were ALL THE WAY UP AT THE TOP, LAST ROW!

Although there was a 'Summer Breeze' all the way at the top....

it did not help to avoid a bit of heat stroke.

"Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks..."

In the middle of a conversation, I began to feel ill.

I knew Dan's lips were moving but I could not hear anything.

I sat down & my daughter asked, "You okay?"

She's a nurse.  She called over my cousin who's also a nurse.

"I don't care if I ever get back..."

Long story short, they called Medics,

who climbed ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP, TO THE LAST ROW

and brought me down to the First Aid Station.

I got to ride in a wheel chair

get an IV inserted (for fluid loss)

AND an EKG hook up!

"It's just root, root, root for the home team..."

All this in the AIR CONDITIONED First Aid Station.

I have never been the patient in those circumstances before 

but like I said, there's always your first time.

"If they don't win it's a shame..."

Oh, and the Phils lost to LA...think it was 15 - 7...

Oh, and did I tell you how excited we were that my cousin

was throwing out the first pitch to the Phillie Phanatic?

"For it's ONE, TWO, THREE STRIKES YOU'RE OUT! 

at the old ball game."

Typical fun night out!

Another nice weekend if I do say so myself...

I consider this past weekend a pretty nice weekend. 

I was able to get some fun time in, some shopping in, some work in, and a few other things. 

So I got to celebrate my nephew's engagement...

Stop by the Outlets and get some shopping done...YAY!

And had the time to get all my laundry done so I had clean clothes to wear this week!

And last, but certainly not least, thanked God for my son finally getting a job!

High Hopes

Next time you're found, with your chin on the ground

There a lot to be learned, so look around


Just what makes that little old ant

Think he'll move that rubber tree plant

Anyone knows an ant, can't

Move a rubber tree plant

But he's got high hopes, he's got high hopes

He's got high apple pie, in the sky hopes...

Another weigh in, a little less of me to love!

YAY

Down 2.8 lbs more.

I've got high hopes, I've got high hopes

I've got high apple pie in the sky hopes!

...So any time you're gettin' low

'stead of lettin' go

Just remember that ant

Oops there goes another rubber tree plant

A Broken Heart...

It's amazing just how many of us go about our everyday lives with broken hearts.

Some are broken due to lost love and heartache while others are due to poor care throughout one's life.

I am blogging about the latter and what to do when you happen upon someone having a heart attack.

Today, I took my recertification class with the Red Cross for CPR/AED in the workplace.  Of course, I wore comfy clothes since I knew I'd be on the floor playing with a dummy.  I also knew I'd be sweating my beegeebers off once I got into the one, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand count of compressions.

I passed the written exam with flying colors!

So if you ever have a broken heart and I am in your company...RELAX...I've got you covered!  Do yourself and your loved ones (and strangers) a favor and head to your local Red Cross for a First Aid/CPR/AED class.  It can save a life!

Afternoon Delight...

Over the weekend I had a chance to unexpectedly catch some afternoon delight.  Nothing better than surprises and surprises that delight are wonderful!

Oh silly, not that kind of afternoon delight...although that kind is also a favorite of mine *blushing*.


I had planned on clearing out the extra bedroom, something I've procrastinated about for quite some time.  I had actually just awakened my son to get out of bed and prepare to help me clear the room and the phone rang.

It was my s-i-l calling to see if I wanted to join her and the boys for a visit to Longwood Gardens.  (For those of you who are not familiar with this Southeastern Pennsylvania gem, Longwood Gardens was once the summer home of Pierre S. DuPont, of the renown DuPont family, and is over 100 acres of gardens.)

I was in quite a conundrum... to clean or play...hmmm...let me think about this...ok, let's play!  Boy oh boy am I glad I said yes.


Picture perfect weather and off we go!

I've been to Longwood several times but usually at Christmas when the Conservatory is all decked out with Poinsettia and Christmas trees lit up in assorted colors.  Needless to say, at that time of year, it's quite cold and once you enter into the garden area, you make a bee line to the  Conservatory 'cause it's freezing...brrrr....brrrrr.....brrrrr.

This visit, however, was the first summer visit I (we) ever made so instead of making our usualy bee line to the Conservatory, we ventured off to the right and down a garden path...OH MY, the flowers were in bloom and the Longwood Gardens' B&B (Bees & Butterflies) were awaiting our arrival.

Serene, splendid, spectacular...I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon delight! Feel free to scroll down and enjoy a glimpse or few... I could have watched the Bees & Butterflies for hours.

 

   

  

Already planning to go back and visit in the fall when the trees will be in their autumnal glory!