IT'S HOT HERE TODAY!!

AAack! It's hot here! Omigod, what am I gonna do? Kiddin. It is going to be a low of 59, so soon it will cool off this evening. It is almost six now, high of 86 today-we didn't turn our air on out of sheer stubbornness, the girls must think we've lost our minds. We're turning into big ole cheapskates now. Ha. It didn't really start to feel hot to me until about two. It is definitely different here than what we were used to in Florida. Don't worry, we talked about it, and we won't let ourselves sweat to death, we are going to turn the air on as soon as we wake up tomorrow, since the next few days the heat wave is expected to continue. Thursday the high is like 95!

Tonight we're grilling out. Hoffman's hot dogs are big around here, we have some of those, along with some other sides. Heid's, a famous hot dog joint around here, serves that kind of hot dog. Heid's is great...and they have the very best, super-duper crunchiest onion rings I've ever tasted. I'm absolutely serious! Ever!

Eric mowed the lawn and it looks really nice. I will go and get my pictures from Rite-Aid tomorrow and hopefully will have some good ones to scan and post. I bought the greatest little clear glass cheese plate today from St. Vincent De Paul's Mission thrift store. I have to confess I've bought quite a few little things there, rather than having to pay full price for lots and lots of things we need. I also found a little stained glass hanging to put in one of my windows, and a bowl to put water outside the screen door for Pepper, our dog, to have a drink now and then while she is hanging out in the back yard.

Okay, bye for now. Time to go and spend time with the family.

Rambling On

Ok, it's late in the afternoon on Monday, and now we're relaxing. The kids have been playing in the backyard for hours now. It's good for them. Our boxes are still not all unpacked, but we'll get to them. I put more pictures up on the walls and Eric set up a composter in the back yard today. Yard waste is absolutely banned from the garbage! This is good, it's better for the environment, but we had to adjust. As I've mentioned before, people around here take recycling much more seriously than what we were used to. I brought a big bag of aluminum cans to Wegman's and got five cents each for them. We had breakfast at Denny's this morning, the four of us. It was nice to sit together, talk about things, etc. We've been much better about doing that at dinner time, too. In our condo, we'd gotten rid of the dinner table due to space issues, so we're liking having a dinner table again. The party in Whitney Point yesterday went well. The girls really enjoyed being around other kids, I think, and are looking forward also to starting school and really beginning to meet more people and making more friends. I heard Sophie whisper to Alissa in the backseat on the way home from Jessica's, "Hey Alissa, did you make any new friends?" We met our neighbors who live in back of us, seem like a really nice family-two kids, one boy around Alissa's age and a girl, an almost-grown-up teenager. I'm trying to savor my last few days of being "off of work"-I start work August 20th. Anyway, bye for now.

Whitney Point, NY

Today we're driving down to Whitney Point, NY to Jessica's (my stepsis) for a birthday pool party for two of her children. The drive is something we're not used to yet-it's got lots of mountains, it is really quite beautiful. At one point, close to Jessica's house, we feel like we are going straight up, then straight down a mountain. We felt the same way when we were driving to Sterling, NY for the Renaissance Fair, which was awesome, by the way. I'll have to take pictures one of these days. We did get a cell phone picture of the girls riding a camel (yes! a camel!) at the Ren-Fest. Our digital camera has been not working, or out of batteries, or lost, or something. There's been a little more disorganization than usual since the move. I've got another throw-away camera for today. I've got two throw away cameras being developed at Rite-Aid. I cannot put pictures of the inside of my house up yet, partly because of the camera situation, and partly because the place doesn't really have that "put together" look. Yeesh. Oh, today we put up a hummingbird feeder! The other day when the usual flock of birds was eating away at the seed we put out in a feeder, a lone hummingbird hovered, discovered no nectar, then left. One of the types of birds that visits our feeder is a cardinal-lovely, lovely bird. There are many other kinds...we have yet to figure out what they are. Ok, must go now and finish getting ready for the b-day party.

Snowthrower in July!

Got the snowthrower-5.5 HP, brand new, but in winter we will be happy we did this, I am sure. Ended up ordering it online with Ace hardware instead of buying the used one Eric set out this AM to look at. The thing was rusty, and had an asking price of over 200.00. We opted for the comfort of a warranty; there are a few things one shouldn't be cheap about, and around here, a snowblower is one of 'em. Today I went shopping with my kids in tow again. Got more stuff at K-Mart for the house, a couple of pictures, scatter rugs for the girls rooms, and at this moment I cannot remember what else. We went to lunch at New Ling Ling Chinese Buffet, which is close to our house, and very delish-and kinda cheap at 17.01 for the three of us including our drinks. Then we stopped at a consignment shop right here in town and cleaned up! Awesome sweaters, full length, for Alissa, along with some light jackets and several cute tee-shirts, including ones by Aeropostale, Guess, and Hollister! I didn't buy them, but I found a couple of Coach bags (one large white, one small brown)! Wow! The shop owner was really nice, and had very positive things to say about living in Syracuse. She is another person who states she has lived here her whole life and wouldn't live anywhere else. It was nice to hear. Oh, our air conditioner is still on today, it has been for two days now, so it definitely does get hot here. Well, off to take care of dinner stuff, do some cleaning, etc, you know the drill for those Moms out there.

Snowblower

Eric just left to go and look at a used snowblower. We've read and been told this is very necessary for up here. I'll blog later, gotta have my coffee now. I was up pretty late watching on-demand videos on the TV...

PJ's & Rainy Days

Today I stayed in my pj's way too long. I got dressed and went out to get a haircut just on principle. On what principle, I am not sure, but I ended up just a few streets down from my house, at house converted to a salon, called Mercedes Salon and Day Spa. A charming old house, probably built anywhere from 1900 to 1940...$23 for a wet cut, not bad, and a young woman named Amber cut my hair. I know she's a good one, she has my niece's name. Hi Amber, if your Mom is having you read my blog!! Love you! Anyway, Amber my hairdresser was interested in why on earth we'd move from Florida to upstate, NY. She's an upstate NY native, and as I meet more people here, I am finding many people have lived in this area their whole lives. I listed a few things, but the one thing that was really memorable and shocking to Amber was the fact that I could not deliver cupcakes to my daughter at her school in Pompano Beach, since the school was on lock-down that day due to a shooting down the street from the school. I also stated how much quieter the area is than what I am used to. After the hair, it was on to Wegman's, which I swear is just a little nicer than Publix. All the while it was raining, thus my title of this blog, but a soft rain, so not too bad. Not much happened at Wegman's, but I am enjoying the differences between here and Florida, that's all. I like that there generally aren't long lines anywhere here, people tend to be friendlier than I am used to, and I always get ID'd buying beer at Wegman's. Ha. Maybe that is why I really like Wegman's. Hmmm.

Success at the DMV and the Mall!!

Now both our cars are registered in NY!! My poor kids had to sit with me at the DMV and be bored silly, but it's done. Just have to get both cars inspected now at a local shop within ten days and that ordeal will be done for a year. We then went to the Carousel Mall (see the scanned postcard to the right) and had a nice lunch at Johnny Rockets. I asked our waitress, and yes, this is the same Johnny Rockets that Leo Dicaprio had a meal at not long ago-it was in the papers here, quite a bit deal. He was apparently really quiet, low-key, only recognized by one staff member at Johnny Rockets. Oh, and speaking of famous people, Richard Gere went to North Syracuse high school, I've been told. Homer Gere, Rich's Dad, still lives here and delivers meals-on-wheels, too! Maybe I'll get to meet him sometime. Anyway, the girls and I shopped away. I was surprised when Alissa didn't go for it when I offered to buy her a Hollister t-shirt. I think she didn't think it was a good value, or didn't care about the label or what. She ended up with three shirts from Old Navy for the same price of that Hollister shirt. Maybe she was as annoyed with the terribly loud music in that Hollister store, too. All right, the A/C vent, which is on the floor, is turning my feet to ice. Gotta go for now.

Mall, DMV

Today the girls and I (My daughters Sophia, Alissa, and me) are going to the Carousel Mall. There is an actual carousel in this mall. Sophia has been asking every day now for about a week when we are finally going to go to this mall. I went to this mall when I was up here in May house-hunting. It is a pretty big place, though I didn't see the carousel somehow. We'll have to find it today...I'll blog about it later. Today's high is 89, apparently, and I am a bit warm. May have to put the A/C on today. We shall see. Ok, off to the mall now. Grr-stopping by the DMV first to try and work on the registration of my cars in NY, which is turning out to be quite a pain.

High of 86 today?

I am sure I will be writing in the winter-time, shivering away and complaining I'm cold, but today's high here is 86, with a low tonight of 64. Yes, for my Florida friends, 64!!! That high of 86 may or may not happen, and if it does, it will likely be for just a few minutes late in the afternoon. My windows are still open in the house!! I am just not used to this...it's wonderful. It's funny-the newscasters here hesitate to say when/if a high temperature will be reached. One the other day said, "I'm not promising anything, but it may get into the nineties next week, we'll have to see." He sounded pretty skeptical. Sorry to go on and on about the lovely summer, but it is just darned nice not suffering away in the heat in South Florida. Remind me in February, after I've been snowed on/in a buncha times, how much I loved the summer here in Central NY. Onto another subject, my street I live on is quiet, and we've had to buy nightlights, since it actually gets really dark here at night. We don't have the light pollution, as I've taken to calling it, that we had when we lived in S Florida. Recycling is another thing that's different, people seem to take it more seriously here than where I've lived in Florida. Well, enough for today, I still have boxes lingering around that must be unpacked or, at the very least, shoved down in the basement.

Cool Days In July!

Hey-it's cool in July here! I am loving it. The girls and Eric are happy, too. Our dog, Pepper, is adjusting to having her own space, the backyard and the deck, to root around in and chase squirrels and birds, and to possibly hunt bunnies. Yes, we see plenty of little cottontail bunnies here! They're terribly cute, chasing each other around in people's yards, including ours. There is a groundhog or hedgehog or whatever-you-call-those-things, who lives across the street in a neighbor's front yard. This thing blatantly walks out in the yard, looks and digs around, then goes back to his hole-it's like he is their dog or something. Pretty funny. Today I am going to try and make some more progress on registering our cars in NY, which has really turned out to be a pain!!!! Other than that, all is well, the weather is nice, and we're all adjusting well to our house and neighborhood.

We're Here In New York!!

We made it to New York, safe and sound. All went well, except for a one day delay in the close of our home, but we closed and moved in on July 12. Right now I am blogging from the public library, since our internet is going to be turned on July 25. Today we went to the Great Northern Mall-once construction is fininshed it is supposed to be the 4th largest mall in the U.S. Wow-who knew? So this small-town place has some big-town features. I'll blog more later about the goings on with all of us. The girls are happy to have their own rooms! Ok, that is it for today.

Bye, Florida!!

Ok, this will be my last blog for a while. I am going to miss being on the internet for a few days while we are on the road. Our 4th of July was rained out after all. We did go and have dinner with my friend Gula and her family. They're from Uzbekistan originally, and speak Russian and Uzbek primarily, though they're learning English. Their daughters really have a good command of the English language already. Anyway, we are boxing up as much stuff as possible and cleaning away - we pick up our 22 foot truck tomorrow. We plan to start our drive on Saturday, July 7- that way we can spend an extra day at "Granny's"-Eric's parents. It will be good to spend the extra day with family. It should also make us more rested. I hope all goes well. I am nervous and excited about the big move. I bought a throw-away camera to take pictures along the way, so one day before long I can post some pictures of the adventures. I am looking forward to seeing the view from the PA/NY state line again-just breathtaking. Well, bye for now.

Happy 4th of July!

The 4th of July, New Year's Eve, and Christmas are my favorite holidays. We'll go tonight and see the fireworks at the beach here in Pompano with a friend of mine and her family. For the first year in I cannot remember how many years, I tried to get out of the trek to the beach (the crowds, the HEAT, the inconsiderates who sit three blankets over from us lighting fireworks on the crowded beach) to watch the fireworks, but Sophia, my seven year old, would have none of that talk from me. She is right, despite the crowds, the heat, the inconsiderates, I'd be sad if we didn't go...

So, Happy 4th of July!! Be safe!

On another subject, I finally got a great night's sleep last night. No trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, etc. Aaah. Nice. I wonder what else we will do today. We usually have a nice dinner 'out' for the 4th, the 4 of us as a family. Maybe we'll go to Flanigan's. That's a place I will miss. It's just a bar (with a family seating section, too), really, but with a nautical decor, and never had bad food there. It is also a restaurant/bar I used to go to when I was much younger, my early 20's and going to school, working away like a dog at Publix. I suppose the connection with my younger days is a large part of the attraction to Flanigan's for me.

Rambling. Omy-I had a good cry about moving away last night! It happened right after I read the comments from my friend Melissa on my blogs. Awww, I am sad to be leaving Florida, too, because of Melissa and other friends, and I'll also be leaving my Grandmother and brother in Florida. By the way, several family members, including myself, are trying to get my Grandmother to come and live with them. She's not budging so far! Anyway, Florida has been my home for almost 37 years-I suppose that cry has been building up for a while.

All crying aside, I know we are making the right decision to move-we'll actually be closer to many more relatives than we are now. My sis in Maryland, my Mom and Aunt and Uncle in Indy, my step-sis in Binghamton (45 mins away, or so!), a cousin in DC, aunts and uncles in PA, you get the idea.

I know it may sound like we picked Syracuse out of a hat, basically. The truth is, we picked Syracuse, NY based on lots of internet research on the area. Quality of life, affordable living, good schools, great place to raise a family, and less crowding/traffic/congestion due to it being a much less populated area than what we are used to made us pick Syracuse. Oh-also, the crime rate in the Syracuse area is a fraction of what it is here, per capita. The thought of how likely myself or anyone in my family is to be a victim of violent crime here in S Florida is terrifying to me. I could dig up some statistics, but that may bore ya more than this blog. Oh, and yes, we know about the snow. I'm sure I'll be writing some great blogs about driving and living with snow.

Today may be my last chance to blog for a while. Tomorrow, we'll be turning in the power cord and modem for the cable connection we are using, then Friday we pick up our truck for the big move. Sunday we start day one of our drive to NY. Bye for now!!

Tryin' to Relax

Ok, so I am trying to relax a bit, chill, not worry so much about the close date. Our attorney reassured me again yesterday that all looks good for the July 11th close date of our home in NY. Just five more days before we begin the drive to NY. We plan to split it up, the drive, into three days of driving, which I am not sure about. Will it just lengthen the agony if the kids and pets act up, or will it really break up the trip and make it more manageable and allow us enough rest? We shall see. We're doing the three day thing on the theory that it will allow for proper rest. On that note, I will go now and have a nap. Blog ya later.

The Cheesecake Factory

Had a nice lunch with a friend at the Cheesecake Factory today. Caught up on things with my friend, exchanged pictures, etc. Sophia and Alissa came along, and we walked around in the mall afterwards looking mostly at shoes. I love shoes, and I've passed this fascination along to my girls. Got a Ron Jon Surf Shop shirt for Alissa and a little tin sign we can hang in our new house that says 'Ron Jon Blvd'. I hope we won't miss the beach too much. I've lived in Florida my whole life, oh, and come to think of it, my kids are natives, too. I gotta say, though, the number of times I've been to the beach in the last five years could probably be counted on one hand. Stream of consciousness...OMIGOD-I DON'T HAVE A CLOSE DATE SET IN STONE YET FOR THE HOUSE WE ARE BUYING IN NY!! Our attorney, yes, attorney-closings of properties in NY are handled by attorneys, told me in an e-mail that he sees no problems with the close date being on July 11. I think the attorney is tired of me asking if the date is set yet. I slept poorly again last night. I really hate things being so unsettled. Hopefully all will go well and we will close on July 11 and two weeks from now I will be blogging from my home in NY, and I can just settle down. Spaz. Ok, better go now, gotta run to Publix and get some beer so we can have our neighbor over and we can talk and have a few too many and say our good-byes.

Medicine

I'm thinking of how my husband Eric can make me laugh, I am talking tears streaming down my face, ribs hurtin' kind of laughing at times, something we should all do more, but that is a lecture for another day, and how he and I had a funny conversation about a blog topic yesterday. I think I just committed some kind of grammatical error crime with that previous sentence. Geez. Good thing there aren't grammar police living here in my house.

Anyway, Eric really is a much better writer than I am-he's got such a wicked sense of humor, a great knowledge of history, etc, etc, a master's degree in English, and really should just be doing our family blog, or, as I have told him many times, writing "the next great American novel." Ha, no pressure there! Don't be embarrassed, Eric, if you are reading this!

In any case, I will try and relate the conversation. It stems back to about five days ago, when I went shopping. I bought many things, among the items were refrigerator dough crescent rolls and a package of hot dogs. I came home, put them in the fridge, and stated that the hot dogs and crescent rolls were for pigs-in-a-blanket, just like my Grandmother used to make, and I was going to make them soon, to please not touch the crescent rolls or hot dogs, save them, save them, because I simply must make pigs-in-a-blanket, and I will, I will, and soon.

There the hot dogs and the crescent rolls sat, in the fridge, for several days until I was left to my own devices one morning when Eric got up early and took the girls somewhere like a park or something, as he often does nowadays while we are living this semi-vacation sort of existence. I got up nice and late like I like to, yawned and stretched a bit, and had my coffee, then started looking around for some breakfast. Well, I cooked the crescent rolls, which really ended up looking like blobs, then ate half of them slathered in butter, one after the other, standing in the kitchen. Ugh. Insert self-loathing here.

I am just doing a write down of whatever comes to mind, the stream-of-consciousness-thing that Robin talked about a bit in her blog. I am now thinking of you, Melissa, and your friends. I am a fat blogger. I don't self-loathe too much, or I really try as hard as I can not to, and I won't put my weight on my website. I won't diet and weigh in this Wednesday, because likely by the day after tomorrow I will rationalize some reason that I am not on a diet. I am the world's worst dieter. Another story, another day. I did not like to read you beating up on yourself, though, Missy Melissa. You have three beautiful kids, a lovely life, too. Oh, and I think your picture is great-you look great!

Anyway, Silly joke: Why did the woman wear a helmet to the dinner table?
--Because she was on a crash diet. I do wish you luck on your diet/healthy eating. I'm just worse weight-wise when I am paying too much attention to my eating.

Anyway, on with my blah-blah-blogging.

When Eric came home with the girls a little later that morning, he and I talked about blogging, about how I went berzerk and cooked the crescent rolls and then ate half of them, standing in the kitchen, what a humorous/hideous scene it was (after so many years of marriage, I really don't keep enough secrets from my husband, I swear I gotta work on that one). Eric said something like, "Now that is your story you could blog about. You should talk about how you were going to make pigs in a blanket, but instead you just made blankets, and now the blankets are in the pig." It got me really laughing at myself, and now I think the story is not so funny as I remember it in my head. Guess you had to be there. Ha.

I titled this blog 'Medicine' because of the reference to Laughter being the best medicine. Anyway, I should have had a separate piece of paper off to the side here to take note of how many times I was interrupted by my children while I was trying to write this blog. Grrr. I think it was no less than ten times, and all my Sophia, whom I think Alissa sends as the messenger.

I felt like I had so much more to say in this blog today. I'm writing and writing with the assumption that my friends and sister will just read it simply to hear what is going on in my head at times. It can be a scary place in there, with the cobwebs and all, and, well-lately with the worrying about the move and when is my close date, and will the closing happen smoothly, my not sleeping too well of late, etc, my brain is on overload with neurotic worryings. I have to say, all in all, though, all is well. I really can't complain. Ok, bye for now.

Love to all.