Decorating for the Holiday season

Divas do not smile for the camera

*266*

   Raymond and I cleaned the yard yesterday. Not the top yard but the side yard and I did the front of the house. I still have to do some out there but I will get to that after this. So since I had that pleasantly wonderful unexpected help, I decided I would go downstairs today and bring up all the Christmas decorations. The tree and all. I found the porch flag and the wreath for the door. Everything else was BURIED behind boxes and crap. I was a little bit pissed, to say the least. When we had the almost fire and then the electrician..Fred decided to clean the basement. He basically cleaned the main area and SHOVED everything in the storage area on the side. EVERYTHING. Guess what was behind all of that?
Christmas!
After I screamed that he was dead meat..hehehe..he came downstairs and got all my Christmas crap. Thank you, big hug and kiss. All is right with my world.
 So I am not too bah humbuggy I guess. I am willing to look at Christmas decorations for longer then a month. That must mean something.
Now, hopefully Ruby and Milo will not destroy shit this year. This is both of their first Christmas together. One could climb and knock over the tree, the other could digest it. So I will be on my toes with those two.
   All the animals still have fleas. I have to go to the vet and pick up some treatments on Monday. Lu is still favoring her back leg but she is using it. I do not want her to suffer (she is not complaining) but I do not want to pay a vet bill for her being dainty. She could have a slight sprain but favor it forever cause she does not like to hurt. This is the dog that screamed bloody murder when her feet touched snow.  I have made the decision to make my decision on Wednesday. If she is still favoring it the same as now with no improvement, she will go to the vet.
Okay, time to finish my umpteenth coffee, slap a bra on the girls, and finish my yard work!
Is it January yet?

Preparing for Old Man Winter

*266*<----I just checked. That was after eating pie! Woot!

Today I am covering the windows. I always talk about how I am gonna do it, oh today I am gonna do it, Yeah, must not forget about the windows. But my ass always..ALWAYS waits till it is cold.
This is later then usual. Usually I have them all up before Thanksgiving. It was cold last night and it crept inside. So for me, it is time. I have washed the window sills in the livingroom and I have tape up on one window. I want to go window by window in there. When you put the tape up around the window frame, you have to wait 10-15 minutes for it to adhere. I have heavier lace curtains to hang up out there for the colder months too.
My biggest challenge is our bedroom. Back in the day before we even knew this house was on the map, Upstairs had an in-law apartment. Our bedroom was designated the livingroom/kitchen. And it had a big ole 1970s sliding glass door that walked out onto a deck. The deck is long gone but the big assed door remains. We dont have any money. My choice would be to put a new deck, with stairs (as another way out) and have a good set of French doors that are safe from burglary. Fred wants no deck and he wants the hole framed in and have a couple windows put in. Who knows? It will probably stay like that till one of us is dragged out of here. LOL
Anyway..I have to cover that fucking thing with a patio door window cover. It takes me over an hour to finish it.
But, the plastic makes a huge difference. If you have older windows and have drafts, give the plastic a try. I have been using it for over 14 years and I will do it until I cannot anymore.
Or I hit the Powerball and get a new house. HA!

Nothing to see here..Move along.

*266*

I typed in the word black and this was one of the pictures that popped up on Google. Looks like my dearly departed Baby. Little scruff of white on chest, big moon shaped green eyes.
 Today is black Friday 2011. Many people are out there and shopping till they are in debt to their eyeballs. We got paid on Wednesday and I have $50 now till next Friday. I did not go shopping. That is what I normally have left after groceries and gas. I will not use credit cards to go shopping either. So as you can plainly figure out, I will NOT be shopping today or any day this whole week.
 I am going to start to quickly fall into a Christmas Depression. Here is where I am whiny and you might as well turn away.
I cannot provide the kinds of Christmas like I did in the past.  We have money for life but none for fun. I KNOW that I should not stress over this. I am a smart, logical person. My *children* are both adults now. They should get one present, maybe two under the tree and that is it!
I think I am having it hard this year because nobody is a child so I do not have the excuse anymore. I cannot provide the big flat screen tv to my husband that he would love. We are still using this broken Dell because we do not have any extra money for anything. I hate it. I do not like being frugal all the time. I want nice things but I cannot afford to get anything.
 I am stressing over buying 6 gifts. And I PRAY that nobody brings me a present because I cannot shop for them.
So yeah, I am going to be in a sad mood until December 26 or maybe the 27th. Every Christmas commercial will be another message telling me how much of a loser I am cause I cannot provide a nice Christmas. You can say all you want about it. It isnt about the gifts! It IS about family. It is about love. Yeah, well my darling children want something under the tree. And then I will get asked..What did you get for Christmas this year?
I probably wont get anything cause I told Fred to save his money. And that is not a sad sack statement. It is the truth.
If I could have one wish..I would wish that I did not have to decorate or celebrate Christmas at all. It will not be fun for me one bit.

Is it January yet?

Turkey Day Eve

*266*

 The day before Thanksgiving.
It is pay day and the grocery stores are MOBBED!  I had my first round of allergy testing this morning at 10am. I was done in the office by 1030am. I figured I would go to the local grocery store in that town instead of waiting till I got closer to home. OMFG! First of all, it is 1030am on a Wednesday. The place is packed to the rafters with old and young rich bitches.It is a rich town! What should I had expected? But they have better sale prices then the exact store closer to me. So when I am near there, I shop............
  I actually left after I finished that sentence. How Rude! Huh?
I had to take Chelsea to work and I was coming right back. But she texted me to tell me she got her check. Our credit union is going to be closed on Thursday, Friday and the weekend. She gets out at 5pm and they would be closed by then. So I ran around like a chicken for the next 2 hours getting toilet paper and grinders for lunch/dinner. I have tuna. Mmmm!
 So I bought lasagna fixings, breadsticks in a tube, garlic knots from local pizzeria, some sparkling cider, taco fixings, and pie from the freezer that I throw in the oven. I cannot NOT have something to eat when everyone else in the country (that can afford it) is eating too! Fred is working (holiday pay!! yes!!) so I will drive him over some dinner. I am oh so nice!
Oh..I also bought buy 1 get 1 free boxes of Russel Stover candy. Those need to be hidden I think. I wanted to save for Christmas time because they go on sale like now but the closer you get to Christmas they do not. I think I will have Fred hide them. Yeah! That is the plan.
hehehe

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope your turkey is moist and juicy and your dinner table is bursting with food to feed all of your guests. I hope no one shows up in a pissy mood and that all the little ones know to keep their grubby paws off the furniture.
Happy Turkey Day! Gobble Gobble Gobble

Stop the clutter! I want to get off!!!

*266*


My house is a cluttered mess. There, I said it. I am embarrassed by it. Now to be clear, it is not in any way shape or form defined as a hoarder situation. I just have a couple people in my house that want to save every fucking thing and they just shove them in places. I am sick of looking at it all. Now I will be honest and say that I have clutter too. I have dollhouse/art supply clutter. My reason is because the areas that I made for storing those things, have been infiltrated by other clutter. There are fucking books....every fucking where! Now we do not have a library but it is the beginnings of one. I would love to have one of those organizers come in and help me. I do not have alot of stuff. If I took all my dollhouse/art stuff I think I would have three large totes full. As for the other stuff that is cluttering my home and life. It would fill the basement! I am really tired of looking at it.
What do I do? Do I spend MY money buying totes to put all this crap in to store in the basement?
My diningroom is a complete mess and I am tired of it. I am in a state of constant Flux with the clutter.
I clean off the dining room table today. Tomorrow morning it will be covered in somebody elses shit!
I complain too damn much but there is a point to this. I want to shit out of my house! Books to the used book store! Recycle, donate, and toss!
I want to be proud if someone came over my house. Right now, I would be mortified if anyone showed up.
Give it to me! I need ideas! Oh and we cant have a bon fire so do not suggest that. hehehehe

Now that`s a fire!

*266*

I had to call 911 yesterday.

Yesterday I planned on putting plastic on the windows in living room, general cleaning and cooking something nice cause Fred has the day off. It was a beautiful day and I just did not want to go anywhere. I was being fucking lazy! I even laid on the couch with my phone and went on Facebook. LAZY! I guess lazy was good yesterday. I got up to clean off the window sills to start putting the tape up for my winterization of the windows. All of a sudden I saw a puff of smoke by the window. I thought that I might have sprayed some of the windex into the outlet. So I unplugged the lamp. Then I saw another puff of smoke. I look in basement..nothing. I go back to the outlet, touch the wall, and it was hot. I went into SUPER MOM! mode. I grabbed phone, called 911, told them. They said get out of the house. I yelled for Natalie to throw warm clothes on and grab Lu (who was on my bed), Chelsea grabbed a cat, Natalie grabbed a cat, and I grabbed my cell, keys, put on slippers, grabbed Perla , and leashed Ruby. All went into the Jeep. No one was screaming or freaking out..Just calmly get the fuck out.
And we did not scramble trying to get the animals. They were all within our vicinities so it was just a quick grab and go. They came and turned off all the circuits to the living room. Just in case. The breaker for that room got overloaded and that is why the wall was getting hot. Two new things had happened. We bought that new heater for the living room AND I changed the bulb outside on the front porch. So one of these, both of these, or none of these did it. Fred has a really close friend that works as electrician at the hospital. He said it is simple to fix and figure out. He will be over on Monday morning.
I want all the outlets in the living room changed and I want to learn how to do it, so I can do the rest of them in the house. I have a book to teach me but I would rather SEE it being done.
I was scared afterward. I was thinking about all the whatifs. What if that happened while we were sleeping? Or when we went out of the house? We would have lost the house, the animals and ourselves.
 There was something that tipped me off that saved us. I bought these insulating inserts that you put between the wall and the outlet cover. It has the holes like the cover. They are used to block the air coming from outside walls. That is where the puff of smoke was coming from. That thing was melting from the heat. If I had not put that there, I would not have seen the smoke, and who knows what would have happened!
Everything happens for a reason, i guess.
We are all okay.
A bit scared but okay.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

*266* <---------Yes, this is true!  I really do weigh that!

Short post because I am covering windows. I picked up the scale cause I wanted to see if it needed a battery change. I noticed a switch. Kilos-LBS. It was switched over the Kilos. Maybe the cat did it cause he likes to put his paws under the scale to fetch things. So I switched it to LBS.

266...Woot! I have passed the 270 mark and told her to kiss my slowly shrinking ass!

Okay, gotta go.

It is my anniversary!!

*270*

 It just dawned on me that I have not posted anything in a bit. I need to stop being so neglectful.
  November 14 was the one year anniversary of this blog. Yeah! I know that there are 19 of you visible and a couple more that just read. I always wondered how many there truly are of you. I hope I have not bored you all to death!
Today is the two year anniversary of my back surgery and being a ex-smoker! Woohoo! I have not smoked one cigarette since that last one. I am not going to lie. I have been tempted. And now that my youngest is smoking (MY BRAND!), it was hard at first but now it is no big deal. I do not want one 99% of the time.

   Last year at this time I thought I weighed 283 but later on we figured out that I really weighed 293 and probably more then that sometimes when I was not paying attention.  I have not stepped on a scale in a week but I know I am in the lower 270s to upper 260s. So I have lost 23 lbs since I started whining to you all. Damn, you would think fatty would have lost more then that. Huh? I hear of people losing a 100lbs or more in a year and I accomplished that. I will take it though but I wish it was alot more.
 I know now that the Actos was sabotaging my weight and so was my scale. Once the inches started to fall off and my clothes were getting looser, I was getting more motivated.  I get motivated when I see men look at my cleavage (yup, I am a slut. LOL), I get motivated when someone calls me Miss instead of Maam. I get motivated when a woman tells me I could not possibly have an 18 year old and then is shocked that I have an almost 23 year old. I get motivated when I got carded at the liquor store. That was a good one.
I see that my hair is longer and thicker. No more wispy wispys on top of my head. I dress better, I walk with more confidence, and I am trying to get myself together inside and out.
It may only be 23 lbs but what about this year? It could be another 20 or another 40 lbs. I have always been a slow like a turtle loser, even when I was young and lost a ton of weight. It is better on your skin anyway. It has time to TRY to snap back.


So what are my goals for this year?
I still want to weigh 210. That has not changed one bit. Now that my feet do not hurt anymore (thank you!!), I want to get moving. This puppy has got me moving my ass in ways I do not remember but I want to have a conserted effort to really work on my muscles. Abs. Back. Legs. Arms. I do not want to be skinny mini..never want that. Too much work for a former fatty to stay skinny skinny. I want to feel comfortable in my own skin and not have to wear Spanx with a dress!

Leaves

Japanese Maple

*270*

This is a pic of my side yard this morning. The leaves are piling up. The Japanese Maple has not lost any leaves yet but that will be soon. I love that tree. I planted it a couple years after we moved here. I have been trimming it every year. I do not want it to get big.
I look at that picture and I see leaves to bag, dog shit to pick up, plants to cut down, bushes to trim, and stuff to put away before it snows.
I can also see a beautifully colorful yard that any child would love to dive into if there were no dog bombs present.
My favorite time of year.

UnThanksgiving and Fallen leaves of 2011

Trees in my back yard

*270*

  I am repeating myself from Facebook but that is okay. Just indulge me. It was taking forever for the leaves to turn and fall. It is the second week of November and the leaves were just starting to turn. We would have already bagged the majority of the leaves already and been on our second round by now. I have not bagged one bag yet, and neither has any of my neighbors..until last night. The leaves changed and then we have a rainy wind storm. That is all it needed. Still leaves on the trees BUT lots and lots on the ground. I have to wear my garden clogs to watch for shitbombs while I rake. Ruby has been good about pooping in the same areas but I want to be careful just the same! LOL Speaking of Rubylicious, she is a smart fucking cookie. She has already figured out the flaws in my fencing in the yard. I need to go to Home Depot today and pick up an extra section to block her ass from coming out of the yard. Sneaking little minx. She is getting big. I need to get some snaps of her when I get a chance. The last time I had a puppy (Precious) we also had our older dog Pokie to teach her. It took no time at all to have those dogs trained to stay in the yard. This one is testing me at every turn. She is lucky she is cute.

(I am not in anyway wanting to make this a discussion about race..this is about how I am treated at home.)
   We are not celebrating Thanksgiving this year. We are not even making a special meal, just because. It is going to be another day on the calendar. My daughters are pains in the asses. See, I am the white woman that cannot form any sort of opinion on anything that has to do with Black or Native American issues. They want to make me look stupid at every chance (at least one of them does). They are Narragansett Indian. That means we cannot even eat a turkey dinner because of the genocide of the Indians. Last year I did an UnThanksgiving but this year they said that wasnt good enough. I had to just ignore it existed at all. Yup..ah huh.

So I am going to fuck with their minds this year. Only 2 presents per person on Christmas. That is it. No electronics. No fancified gifts. Christmas is about family and love and all that is nice in the world. It aint about an over abundance of gifts.
SHIT! If I cannot have my turkey..I sure as hell am not going into debt for those two. Nope! They are adults now. Most adults get one present or none at all. I am being generous.
Fred and I will just indulge each other in January for our birthdays and anniversary! tee hee
Is that mean?

Do you watch?

Oh yeah!

American Horror Story that is....

Natalie, Raymond, and I have been watching it since the first episode. They had us at Dylan Mcdermott`s buff ass on that first night. Then I found out one day that he is 50 years old. Damn!
Anyway (wiping drool), I wondered if anyone else has been watching. I missed Wednesday`s episode but Natalie taped it for me and she watched it for me. I was thoroughly grossed out and have to say that was a really good episode. I hope they do not cancel this gem. Some may think it is stupid but alot of people love it. Not scary in the fingerprints on your face sense but creepy. Makes you wonder what they are going to think of next. If you are interested in watching it, it is on Hulu online to catch up.

Christmas may not suck

*270*

 I have been stressing a bit about Christmas ever since the day after Halloween. BAM! There go the gosh darn Christmas commercials. Really? You could not wait until after Thanksgiving? You have to start on November 1? It makes those of us with NO cash feel just a bit more crappy for a whole month longer. Suck it Corporate retail Santas!

  My kids are all adults now...all three of them. (if you did not know, we consider Raymond one of our kids now. hehe) The youngest seems to be the most mature of the three.. Well Rainbow would never say anything so I am just being kind as to not pointing out the glaring omission I am making.
Anyhoo..I told her about the two gift maximum that some of my friends and I discussed yesterday. Two gifts max per person. No high end shit. No electronics. Just nice things. Like a book. Or a sweater. etc. So you feel good that you got something but no one is stressed the fuck out cause they spent the mortgage payment on gifts. She was receptive to the idea. I will still do stockings though. They love the tradition and I love to hunt for weird and unusual things. Nothing costs alot in the stockings. But I find different things in the candy realm, plastic toys, Hanukkah gilt, and that sort of thing.
I will keep the cost down on each gift. So that is 10 gifts if you include me. If I planned this well, I could spend $200 on Christmas easily! Wouldn't that be grand?
I sound so sappy. Cause I KNOW that one child is going to fight this tooth and nail. This child will NOT want a two present max or specific amount spent. This child will talk about how all her choices are inexpensive and she wants all that is on her list. They both make lists. One is an abstract list that gives you ideas. The other is a laundry list of specific things that you must get and dammit! Do not stray from the fucking list!
Yup, these are the children I raised.
   I remember one year, my Dad was on strike at work and he was in the hospital for something (not scary) so there wasn't alot of money. My Mother kept asking me if I would like a air pop popcorn maker for Christmas. It was the newest thing out there. I was like 10 and I kept saying NO! NO! NO!
Guess what my ONE gift for Christmas was? The fucking popcorn maker. So my Mom wanted it and made it my fucking gift! AND she said I was ungrateful cause I did not fawn all over the Rival Popcorn Maker. That was one of the suckiest Christmas` on record for me.
 So I never wanted them to feel they had one. But they have! I have given them wonderful Christmas Mornings and they felt this one or that one sucked because they didn't get what they wanted! Selfish brats!
 I think writing this post is helping to reinforce this whole new way of thinking about Christmas. It is not about the gifts! It is about the family, the season, and the food! Gifts should be an afterthought.

So No Bah Humbugs from me this year!

The misadventures of Dale and Heidi

It was COLD!!

*270*

  I am finally coherant enough to tell you all about my trip. I was on the train for 4 and half hours on Saturday and another four and half hours on Sunday. So my ass was beat down to the ground. Then yesterday at 9am, I had a shrink appointment. OMG! I promised myself that I would cook a nice meal of tacos for the kids and carne asada for Fred and I. I even did pico de gallo and guacamole. I took like 3 hour nap, woke up, cooked, ate, ate, ate, and then went to bed. It has been grazing on food and sleep to get back to myself. Almost there! Maybe tomorrow I will be back to my old self. That pic up top is when we all went outside to wait for the train. It was so damn cold. I was not dressed correctly. But Heidi would rather be cold then hot. That is my rule.

Young Love in Newark

  I had never traveled on an Amtrak train before. I have gone on the Metro into NYC but never Amtrak and never far away from home. This was an adventure and I was all by myself. For the first leg of my journey, I sat with a lovely woman from New Zealand who was traveling from Boston to NYC. We talked. It was nice. Then I was alone for the next two hours. I saw many cool things outside that train. We were going to fast that I could not get them all. I saw the NYC skyline..Empire State and Chrysler building. Very cool. I have seen them before but not like from a distance like that. I have to tell you. Four and half hours is mega grueling on the ass cheeks. LOL Plus you have to use Amtrak bathrooms and that is just a hover situation right there!

 

 

Reading Terminal Market

  I have decided I am going to protect Dale`s face identity, where she lives, and stuff like that. Facebook friends are one thing..the entire world is clearly another. I met up with another mini friend Dianne and her two travel companions. We went outside and after a bit of strife, Dale found us. She and I screamed like little girls and were hugging in the middle of a busy street. That is a friend, I tell you. She drove us around Philly to get to our destination of Reading Terminal Market. I saw City Hall and William Penn, I saw Occupy tent city, I saw people jumping out in front of cars like they did not give a shit. It reminds me of New York City but different. We park, we walked to the market and it was wonderful. I have always wanted to go there. That picture is a place called Dinic`s. Fred wanted me to get a sliced italian pork sandwich but that is the line...going all around the stall. There was no way on this Earth that I was going to wait for a sandwich. Sorry Fred. We settled on a gyro place and we had falafel. Grape leaves were soooo goood! The food was so good that I picked up some pastry to bring home. I  think it is actually all gone. I am happy that Dale indulged me and let me see this place for myself. Thanks Dale!

 

 

 

  From there we went over a big bridge into Jersey and off to the Philadelphia Miniaturia and I got to meet Dale`s sister April. Very nice and super cool in my book.  The show was in  a large venue. Many rooms. It was really overwhelming to me and to others in our group. I have been to mini shows before but not like this. I had decided that I was going to do a turn around the rooms, make some decisions and on Sunday do some purchasing. I got to meet Bridget McCarty in person. She makes lifelike miniature animals. And I met Rik Pierce and his wife. He is the one that built that dollhouse in the picture above. I was also happy to finally meet Sherri Colvin. She was part of Greenleaf forums back in the day. She makes dollhouse dolls. We just gabbed and gabbed for a good 20 minutes and the show was ending for the day. I am glad I saw her. . My freaking leg starting to kill me. You know me and my bump fucking leg. So I sat down in the hotel lobby. I did get up and walk over to a guy that was selling miniature frames. Nice gilt ones. I am planning on trying to do some oil painting and I wanted some frames for the finished product. We were done for the day with miniatures. There was always Sunday anyhoo.
 We drop off Dianne and her crew at the bus depot and then it was off to Dale`s house.

Her family was the nicest. From Dale and her husband, her sister, April, her daughter and friend, all the way down to Sissy the dog and her pretty cats. Tommy Boy IS a holy terror but he is cute as hell. I would have kept him too. I kept asking Sissy if she wanted to take a train ride. :)
 See those boxes there? Those are crack in an orange box. It is a seasonal treat in her area and it only comes out for a couple months this time of year. She gave me one box to bring home. Later on Sunday, we went to the market to get snacks for train and ketchup for dinner and I saw these on display. I bought another box. And it is a good thing I did. Everyone in the house, including Raymond, LOVES THEM! FUCK! I should have bought two boxes! LOL
 We talked and talked and talked until i had to tap out and go to bed on Saturday night. Sunday morning was lots of good strong coffee. Dale says..do you want to go to the show and when? I said, I do not really care if we go back. So we didnt. We hung out in her third floor studio and she showed me her treasures. Jealous! All that room! All those minis! All that discipline and motivation! I need to get me some of that! I think I did not need to buy anything to become inspired. I think Dale herself did it for me. Thanks again Dale!
My main objective was to go mini shopping. The trip morphed into me becoming really close with my far away friend. It was lovely and I did not miss that show one dang bit. Oh and Dan (dale`s hubby) made cheese steaks for dinner on Sunday. OMG! Really good. He made one for Fred and I insisted his ass had to share with me. He would not. sniff sniff.
 I didnt want to but it was time for me to go home...

 

 

Angel at Philly station

I figured out by reading the NY Post on Saturday that there was a reason I had to take a late assed train home on Sunday, 7:19pm-11:30pm plus factor in the time change. Amtrak was replacing a bridge in Stonington (not far from New London) and there was no service all day.
Dale and her daughter Grace gave me a ride home to the station because Grace had to go back to college anyway. They have a great Mom/Kid relationship. Plus Dale likes to sing Black eyed Peas. damn camera was already packed away. hehehehe We hugged outside the station and I was off on the second leg of my weekend. The travel home. I was a tad worried about what the station was going to be like at night. It wasnt bad at all. Amtrak dude told me where to wait for my train, lots of cops and security and people coming and going. I had no worries. But shit, it was warm.

waiting to go home

  I was looking cute in my black sweater, black leggings, and black boots. Until I got on the train. It was mad spicy on there! *that is hot as hell in kid speak*.
And I was sitting in front of a woman and her 20 something son. They argued all the way to the NYC station. It was that whisper fight. Trying to be fucking quiet but actually everyone can hear you. They got off at NYC so that the Lord for that one. I was able to move to a seat by myself. Then I got the hippy chic and her boyfriend with the mile high JewFro in front of me. Get a comb dude! He kept putting his seat back and then up. I could never use the tray table cause I would have been cut in two. Fucker! Another person came on the train in NYC and he intrigued me....

He was wearing a medal around his neck. It did say 2011 on it but I could not tell about anything else. What if he was a weirdo freak and I ask him about his medal? I was too tired for any bullshit. So I just ignored it. I was informed the next day by some Facebook friends, that the NYC marathon happened on Sunday. He was not one of the men`s winners. But if you can complete the race in the time alloted, you get a medal. Pretty cool.
 The first two hours of the train ride I can tolerate. That is from Philly to just past NYC. After that I was itching to get this shit done. Once we were in CT, I felt better but we had to stop at Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Old Saybrook, and then New London. I was never so happy to see the shoreline as I did that night.
Fred was waiting for me when the train stopped. He and I went to get burgers and breakfast at 24 hour diner in Groton. He watched me inhale a tossed salad, pickle, cole slaw, large cheese burger, and fries. INHALED! I was starving like marvin, I tell you. I had food in my bag from the trip but I did not want to dig into the chips. I picked up a brand called Herr`s chips that we do not have here. The flavor was Cheddar and Horseradish. SO Good. I even looked online and they will deliver! I am seriously thinking about having them delivered to my house. Is that sad?
 I came home with three gold picture frames, an oriental rug that Dale made, some miniature shells that she collected, food from her region and a great friendship that will last for a long time.
 The eight hours on the train were definitely worth it!

No more yummy Lobster either...

*269*<---yes, that is correct!

I went to the Allergist yesterday. One of the greatest things is that she had to weigh me.  I told her my scale was broken and I wanted to see if I had lost any more weight. WooHoo! So for all of you that are following along, if I was using my old scale, it would say that I weight 259..cause it was broken. But I am truly 269. So I am moving along rather nicely. I have clothes that are floating on me AND my stomach is going down. I can tell MYSELF. Pretty cool.

About the allergist. I have to have bloodwork done for all shellfish and latex. Shrimp, lobster, crab, mussels, clams, oysters, and scallops. Most likely I will only be allergic to the first three. Then I have to be careful when dining out. Many places do not have seperate bins for people with allergies. You have to talk to the manager to make sure that it is safe. The Dr had a patient that got an allergic reaction to eating french fries at a restaurant You can become so sensitive that the oil the food is cooked in can transfer to you.
I learned alot. I need to keep both epipens in my purse. Just in case one doesnt work, there is the other one. I need to call 911 if I use my epipen to be evaluated.
So I will do the blood work tomorrow when I do my errands. Then I go in for latex scratch test and then the seafood scratch tests. I think I can live without eating shrimp, lobster and crab even though they are soooo yummy. It wont be such a tragedy if I can still eat the mollusks. Crossing fingers!

I will probably not be posting tomorrow and I leave on Saturday morning for the weekend. I am off to have some fun with my friend and meet some mini peeps and spend some money!
Yay!