Watch Out - All Star Swimming Here She Comes...

Great News!!

My daughter was just elected by the coaches to represent the league at the East Meets West Swimming All Star event this coming Wednesday!! This is great news. She will be swimming the 50 yard breastroke event. For those of you who have been following, you know that she has a permanently disabled shoulder sustained in a snow tubing accident.

Mere words do not seem to be enough to express how proud I am of her for showing shear determination to overcome her physical challenges. She is an incredible example to me and reminds me to keep going, keep persevering, and not to give up. I love her "the glass is half full" approach to life.

Here is a link to an earlier post if you want to learn more background on the story:

http://queenofhaartz.blogspot.com/2009/02/dont-underestimate-determination.html

Wild Weather

Hey, who hijacked our typical New England Summer? It has rained for almost 30 days in a row. Just two days ago, in one burst, we had 6 inches of rain in a two hour time frame. Two homes nearby were struck by lightening. The small brooks are overflowing into the streams, the streams are overflowing the rivers, and the rivers are filling the massive flood plain areas near by. The beaver pond in our back yard has grown enormously.

The weather man is working overtime here. Instead of the typical forecast of when can we expect rain, we are getting reports of when we can expect sun. By some fluke, we had a clear weather for a few hours, enough to attend a Red Sox game. Yahoo!!

I can't help but wonder if near the end of summer it will be the the opposite and we will be dealing with a draught!

A new volunteer opportunity

Got to musing again today about my volunteer term ending soon. It has been a long road over the last 10 years, volunteering, which culminated in being President for the last 21 months. Every day, seven days a week, I work on Auxiliary responsibilities. All for the good of the patients our hospital serves. Some days there are many hours, others just a few follow ups or small tasks.

For the last 9 months I have been training my replacement. It is hard to think of the person as a replacement because I have been so attached to the organization. But change does and will happen. People will arrive who not think like us or act like us. As a matter of fact, they will be abrasive. And why is this you might ask? Because they think they can do better and be better. Things will no longer be done “our” way, but will be done “their” way. Change will definitely happen and depending on the leader it could be a good thing or a bad thing.

I wonder what the future will bring for both me and the organization I currently serve. Hopefully, it will survive and thrive trying new and different things to make it successful. I know that my path will lead me in a different direction with a new organization. Already I have been elected to another non-profit Board of Directors. There is a new group of people who feel I am the fresh new face they are looking for! The future looks bright.

Goodbye My Friend

My muse for today,

My very dear friend passed away this week. A vibrant, gorgeous, loving wife and mother of two young children. This was a shock of monumental proportions. I just had coffee with her a couple days previous and were were setting up our schedules for summertime activities. Death arrived like a thief, and stole her callously away.

We had just set up our new television and stereo cabinet and laid out the new rugs. We now knew how much room we had for furniture. My daughter and I excitedly said we were going to call my friend and see when she was available to help us go and pick out new furniture. At that precise moment when we were about to call, the phone rang and we learned the news. A terrible blow.

What can anyone really say to someone who has lost their #1 go to person? Words can't seem to fill the chasm of pain and grief. At the wake last night, I tried to offer my condolences to her husband, and no words would come out. I stood there, unable to speak, my words were muted. Her husband understood, nodded and gave me a hug. I believe he understood my inability to say words that had any meaning.

What I am able to muse about here, is that while her death was a tragic loss, her life and impact on others was ALL good.

Queen of Hearts Stamp!!

Wow, a new US postage stamp ---- The Queen of Hearts!!!

This appeals to me, so I went out and bought a whole bunch of them today. What could be better than sending out mail with a QOH stamp??

I really don't know why this seems so great to me, but it does!

Adventures of a Rainy Run/Walk

Muse for the day.....

The day started out raining. Hard! It was pouring, some of the roads were flooding, and we had 300 people attending our event. Of course, as President, everyone was looking at me asking me if I was going to cancel. I finally decided that if it was thundering and lightening it would be cancelled. If not, it was "a go." This ended up being the right call.

Remember the last post, "show me the ice cream?" I had decided to buy an extra 75 ice creams based a a 75 degree forecast with sunny skies. It wasn't until last night that the weatherman said the forecast had changed to rain. We really didn't need an extra 75 ice creams.

By race time the weather was down to only a light sprinkle so we were able to go on as planned. The runners actually liked running in the mist. The walkers were decked out in appropriate rain gear. We had about 275 people attend even though it was completely iffy weather.

I am very thankful to the entire 63 scheduled volunteers who all showed up!!! Who ever hosts an event with that many volunteers and they all show up?? Then we had 5 extra people show up who volunteered to help!! It was great, no one was over worked, and with all those extra volunteers were were able to eat most of the extra ice cream with only 9 left over. Those 9 are currently in my freezer. Shhhhh, don't tell anyone!!! LOL.

Show Me The Ice Cream!

Musing about ice cream and other things.

My volunteer group is hosting a 5K run walk this Sunday. We have over 50 volunteers signed up to help and a projected 300 or so participating. A good size group with the economy in a slump. Everyone seems less able to afford to participate in these types of events right now so we are thankful to have 350 people attending.

We are having refreshments, an assortment of fruit, granola bars, water, and ice cream. Everyone gets a T-shirt for participating. It should be a fun time for all.

Who would have guessed that the #1 debated item is the ice cream we are planning on serving after the race? Not me, this came as a total shock to me. We are constantly discussing ice cream and the quantity to have on hand. We have had no fewer than 5 discussions on the topic. Should we or should we not order more.

This is a moving target. We don't know how many will actually register. Our goal is to raise money so buying extra ice cream and no one eating it is a problem. But then again, not having enough ice cream and not meeting the expectations of the participants might be a bigger problem. Then there is the question of should we have ice cream at all? After all, this is a sporting event for the runners. Perhaps encouraging people to eat ice cream is an undesirable thing to do.

I suppose having ice cream wins out. Some of our participants have been there for the last 8 years and they expect ice cream. So...... ice cream it will be!

Awards Ceremony - Where were the Boys?

My muse for today....

Wow, the school year is finally over. Graduation ceremonies were yesterday and the school sent out another group of future High School prep schoolers. It seemed like a great group of students. There were the usual standout performers. Extra smart, extra talented, ultra pretty in the group. It was just like something you would read about in one of those fantasy prep school novels.

It was a curious thing when 15% of the class got 100% of the awards. Four of these achievers got 4 or 5 awards each! Another curious thing was that they were all girls. Couldn't they find a boy to give an award to?? It would have been nice to spread things around a bit. This is after all a co-ed school.

I suppose, if your good at everything, that makes you eligible for every prize. The school could have saved us all a whole lot of time and just had these 5 girls stay up there the whole time and read their name and give a listing of the prizes. Picture this, give an award, girl goes and gets the award and sits back down. Then call the next award for the next over achiever, then it's time for the first girl to get back up, etc. It went on like this for about 25 minutes.

There were a few of us parents that were getting bored. Jealousy? Perhaps. But maybe it is because it seems silly to not spread things out just a little bit more. I find it hard to believe that there were no worthy boys in the entire graduating class. Seems like a bit of favoritism going on here. What do you think?

Finally - The school year is almost over

My muse for the day.....

Wow, another school year has just about finished up. The last final for my daughter is tomorrow morning. The final month of school has been a whirlwind of activities. Dances, outings, tests, projects, placement seminars, class elections, community service events, parties, and gobs of homework! I am amazed she has time to sleep anymore.

We should never forget about the homework monkey. It seems to follow us around constantly. Hours every night and on the weekends too. Then the projects on top of the homework. When I was a young girl (lol couldn't resist) we never had this much homework. Yeah, occasionally we did projects or had an hour or so of homework, but 3 to 4 hours per night - no way. For me, homework ruins a good day. It is frustrating to see your kid work and work and work just to get finished. No free time, no time to really enjoy a nice walk or ride on the bike. Just homework.

I am so happy that we will be free of the homework monkey for a few months. It's time to have a bit of fun intertwined with secondary school essays. At least she can work at her own pace.

Vacation here we come......

Random Happy Thoughts

My muse for today....

I really enjoyed the opportunity to list 6 random things that make me happy. I decided to do an encore run.

Flowers - all kinds, never met one I didn't like.

Ice cream - my very favorite is malted moo crunch. It is a special ice cream made only at a local ice cream stand.

Family - None of my family lives close by, so it is nice to see one of them. It usually involves travelling but it is worth the time and effort.

Golf - Yes! A good day is going golfing. A bad round of golf is better than a good day working.

Playing Pogo games with my sister and other family members. It is fun to do something recreational with a family member even if it is only on-line.

Sudoku puzzles. - I find these puzzles enjoyable. It keeps my mind engaged trying to logically figure out what number goes where. A great way to spend time on an airplane.

Family Genealogy

My muse at the moment....

My daughter has a project in history class where she has to do a genealogy chart. I was quite taken aback by how much I don't know about my family. I couldn't even remember my grandmothers maiden name. Wow. For some reason this hit me kinda hard. What's up with the fact I don't know even this much about my grandparents? Granted, no one really talked about themselves, but still, it seems strange to me now. My parents are both gone as well so there is no asking them. Then I had the realization there is not even one cousin I still speak to or see on my father's side of the family. What is going on there? It is not that I wouldn't speak to them or don't want to speak to them, I have never made an effort. Hmmmm... I should do something about this situation.

My husband breezed through his genealogy chart in just a few minutes. He pulled the information out of his memory banks. No need to refer to very large family tree diagram that he has stored in his desk. He can trace his family tree back as far as 1617 in Germany. Wow, I can't even do the 20th century. He even started spouting out where a lot of them are buried. Oh boy, I am woefully behind. It is really kind of embarassing. I have sent out an email to my siblings in the hopes that they are not as ignorant on the subject as me.

I think its time to start learning about more of my family!

Six Random Things That Make Me Happy

Hi there,
My sister Pouty Baby has tagged me, I am now suppose to come up with 6 random things that make me happy and then go and tag others. Finding others might be the difficult part.

Here goes:

#1 - Golfing, I need to golf more. It puts a smile on my face and reminds me that I am not as athletically challenged as I think. I have a great country club to play and a very nice group of ladies who check up on me because I rarely show up anymore. Golfing makes me smile - so I guess I need to get back to the course.

#2 - I like talking about my daughter. She finds this embarrassing. Is it my fault she is talented? No. When she won a swimming medal at finals and I talked about this phenomenal achievement given her shoulder disability, she was annoyed. When I told someone else that she won the school science fair, she was mad. But hey - if I stop talking about her she might get the idea I am not interested. My mom told me once that I was her least favorite child. Oh gee thanks Mom, don't think I haven't thought about this for the last 40 years. No way this is going to happen with my kid, I make sure to tell her how much I love her and how great she is. We shall not have her saying I was hurtful for the next 40 years.

#3 - Going for an antique car ride. We have a couple of antique cars that actually run. There are no windows, one of them doesn't even have any doors, and no seat belts. It can be a bit scary at times, but the wind in your hair and face is exhilarating. Good thing there is a windshield so no bugs get squished on the face! We like to go to ice cream and bring the old car. It is a magnet for meeting new people. It's nice to share some of the cars' history with others. Ever here of a 1911 Knox car made in Springfield Mass? Well, its old and looks like the Beverly Hillbilly's car. Someone painted varnish on it in the 40's and it turned a nice shade of olive.

#4 - Going shopping with my daughter. This is the case when we don't spend more than 1 1/2 hrs shopping. Otherwise I tend to get tired and bored. It seems that I don't find much for myself. Every now and then I splurge on her and let her get something on the extravagant side. After all, what teenager doesn't need a real Marc Jacobs bag, or a nice pair of Tory Burch shoes? Her daddy likes to buy her stuff at Tiffany's. I suppose there is an inequality there since he has never purchased me anything from there. But no matter, it makes me smile when he does something nice for her.

#5 - My yearly holiday cookie swap. This a bit obscure seeings how it is not the holidays. But this is the one holiday thing I look forward to each year. Usually 10 of us ladies make 5 dozen cookies each and then swamp 6 cookies a piece so we have a great variety. There are always cookies I would never think of making. The great part is having dinner and a martini. We have done this at the Country Club or at my house. One year we got a foot of snow the morning of the party, but 6 of us intrepid bakers still made it. Later they said the holiday's would not be the same without the cookies. (Ok Pouty - are you coming to the cookie swap?) It is a not to be missed event.

#6 - Going to my weekly lunch date with my husband. Yes, it sounds a bit cheesy doesn't it? But I really like going to lunch with him. The week is very hectic and there is no time to go out for dinner and fully enjoy ourselves. Every school day brings about 4 hrs of homework and there is more on the weekend. Yucky. So, we usually go to one of your favorite Thai restaurants and occasionally a fish restaurant. My husband has ordered the same thing for the last 3 years at the Thai place. They just put the order in when they see him. So, this is a fun time to have a bit of a date and break up the week. I always look forward to our next time.

Who Me - Win??

Musing about raffles today.....

This past weekend our local hospital had a charity raffle as part of their fundraising gala. It was a huge raffle with 39 different prizes. I thought about not buying any tickets but decided that I could afford to lose a certain amount of money and not have any regrets. About 500 people were in attendance and everyone seemed to have their hands stuffed with tickets. This was the type of raffle where you had to choose which prize to drop your ticket.

I bought my 10 tickets and then my husband went and bought ten tickets. We laughed how we both had them not knowing that the other one was also doing the same thing. Before I approached the various items, I thought about how I never win and why was I bothering. But then another thought crept in and said - why not you? So right there and then, I changed my attitude and decided that I had at least one winner. As my perspective changed I zeroed in the red sox tickets, a clothing shopping spree, dining certificates and various items I thought would be fun to win. I happily dropped my tickets into the containers.

At the end of the night when the results were posted, guess what? I actually won the red sox tickets and the clothing shopping spree. Yahooo, people were congratulating me on winning, not once but twice. I was shocked, and said, who me - win? How exciting!

Swap Off Drop Off Day

Hi Everyone,

Today the town is having their twice a year - swap off drop off day. There is one in the Spring and Fall. Without a doubt it is one of the more social days in town. Our local Dept of Public Works hosts this event along with the town recycling group. The event has become a massive opportunity to do some spring cleaning and take things to the recycling center for proper disposal and disassembly. They take old computers, old electronics, tv's, mattresses, cardboard, foam, furniture, styrofoam, paint, etc. About 100 volunteers work the event.

I will try to paint you a mental picture of the scene downtown. There are people everywhere, traffic jams, pedestrians, drop off lines, people pushing old lawn mowers down the sidewalks, the place is swarming with people and cars. This is organized chaos at its' best. In the center of this giant drop off loop is a swap off drop off area where people take things they hate to throw away. You can find all kinds of items in this circle, all free for the taking. Furniture, bikes, lawn mowers, books, paint, lumber, tools, and more. There is a temporary fence surrounding the area and only town people can enter before noon. The police watch the entrance but they aren't rigid about checking identifications. You can sit in a car and observe people try to strategize how to get into the swap off arena with the town citizens and slip in undetected. It's kind a comical. After noon, all of the surrounding towns can come in and take what's left. Can you imagine how many out of towners are lined up outside the gate waiting for their chance to get good stuff for free?

Well, I think its time for me to go and get my front row seat and watch the fun. This is free entertainment at its best - people watching! I'm going to stop at the local coffee shop and bring a portable coffee carafe to provide coffee to my friends!

Taking time to enjoy Spring

My muse for today.....

Wow, the jingle April showers bring May flowers is certainly true here in New England. We had a wet spring, this week in particular, and it sure is having a great effect on the vegetation and flowers.

My garden looks great, with daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, forsythia, wild cherry blossoms, azaleas, phlox, candy tufts, violets, mountain laurel, and a few purple creeping flowers underneath the rhododendrons that have made themselves know this year. My other flowers are well on their way to blooming - stargazer lilies, mountain lilies, lady slippers, tiger lilies, peonies, bearded iris, hydrangeas, carnations, snapdragons, fox glove, and lavender.

What a lovely time to take a stroll around the yard and enjoy what beautiful flowers Spring has brought this year. Hmm, I think I should go get myself a rosebush, after writing this down it seems that they are the only one's missing!

Assume the Worst or Best - Your Choice

My muse for the day...

Why is it that some people like to assume the worst in other people? They jump on what ever comment or misinformation given to them and act as if it's the new truth gospel. What motivates people to want to think the worst in others? It's a bit of a mystery to me.

I tend to want to give people the benefit of the doubt. I am not quick to judge and if something seems "fishy" I try to get more facts BEFORE making assumptions and forming opinions. Maybe my reluctance to cut people down is why I can smell something fishy in the first place.

My recent experience with someone has shaken me a bit. They got their facts messed up, made assumptions, then fired off accusations and or/insults. In one instance, they even insulted my friends. I suppose if I had a dog they would have called her ugly.

My mother always told me when insulted or attacked to consider the source, but that doesn't take the sting away. Especially when everything said is false. How are you suppose to ignore lies? Not an easy task.

So here I sit trying to think of a positive from all of this. It is not always easy maintaining a cup is half full attitude. Perhaps, this is a good example of what NOT to do to people. I got a glimpse of what it was like to be be accused when innocent. I do not want to be the person who does this to someone else. I will be very careful to get my facts straight first before making assumptions and accusations.

Birthday Thoughts

Here is the muse... birthdays!

Today is my birthday, a lot of my family and friends have remembered and communicated their well wishes. It amazes me how far saying happy birthday has progressed. It used to be someone had to send a card many days in advance in order for greetings to reach the intended recipients. There was always the hard wired phone call, but that meant the person had to be home. Email arrived on the scene and made saying happy birthday to someone almost instantaneous. The cell phone can now reach someone where ever they are, assuming of course the phone is on. Then texting came on the scene, if someone doesn't answer - just text them. Don't forget to turn on the skype feature on the computer and have a face to face video phone call. And if perhaps all of that fails you can twitter and let them know you are thinking of them.

So what is the result of this technology? I get to hear from a lot more of my family and friends. No more being tethered to the mail and phone systems. It is so much fun to hear from people in whatever manner they wish to communicate. The exciting part is hearing from them at all. It really is a blessing to hear from my family and friends.

I now see that if I forget to tell someone happy birthday most of the old excuses are gone. Can't blame it on the mail, can't blame it on the answering machine, can't blame it on the computer not working, and I certainly can't blame it on the phone. So, I suppose it leaves it back to me. For my birthday resolution, I am going to make an effort to be better at remembering other people on their birthday. After all, what excuse do I have for not staying in touch??

Fare Hikes, Rising Fees, Shrinking Paycheck

The muse for today.....

It seems that everywhere I turn, fees, prices, and fares are going up. Yet at the same time paychecks are shrinking. Why is it okay for the local towns and state governments to institute 100% price increases? What ever happened to the reasonable price hikes, you know the kind that are linked to inflation?

I will give you an example, a permit in my town cost $35 last week, this week the price was raised to $75. Why is a more than 100% price increase necessary? The town's other sneaky increase was raising the blue book value of used cars so that the excise taxes could be raised. Here's another example, a 17 year old car with 185K miles was worth $950 last year, but this year the value went to $1800. Huh - another sneaky 100% price increase.

The turnpike tolls are another area, for example - let's say last week you paid $4 to use the tunnel, in just a few short weeks the price is scheduled to go to $7, nearly double. If you are a smoker perhaps you noticed the federal tax for cigarettes just about doubled a couple of weeks back. Then the banks are chiming in with hiked fees, most likely to pay those bonuses to the non performers. It's not bad enough that we as taxpayers are paying for the bailout, now the banks are hitting us again. Our state wants to double the gas tax to pay for out of control state spending. Gee, there's a surprise.

Let's not forget that the postage stamp is going up in price in a week. Another price increase that was based on the cost of fuel, but wait, didn't fuel prices go down, so logically shouldn't the price go down or stay the same?

At the grocery store things are no better. The sizes are shrinking! Have you noticed? I have. The prices are still going up or remaining the same. The box or package looks like the same size but the weights are saying otherwise. Why is it okay to push sneaky price increases on consumers? Our local big box warehouse store reduced the cookie package by 6 and still upped the price 30%. Wow, another sneaky price increase. Have we numbed ourselves to think that this is just the way it is?

Maybe some of you have actually gotten a pay raise so that you can pay for some of these new fee hikes and sneaky increases. I know we certainly haven't, as a matter of fact, we have a pay cut. In truth most of us are thankful to still have a job.

Good thing I won't be need a permit for anything this year, and that with a bit of creativity I can find ways to get where I want to go without using the turnpike. I can do without cookies, a sacrifice, but worth it to make a statement. Perhaps a few more payments on-line will help take the sting out of the postage budget. I know that a brand new car is out of the question, who can afford the excise taxes?

What is your biggest complaint on price and fare increases?

Type A/B Fundraising

Here is the muse for the day....

Volunteering can be an interesting activity especially when it involves fundraising with other people who are different from yourself. It can really stretch one's comfort zone to let other's take the reigns. I tend to be more of a type A personality, who enjoys making lists and work plans. I like having the tasks set before me so I can plan out my time into "bit sized pieces" this also helps me see the priorities, like which task has to come before another. Some people are the more creative type who like to do things a different way. It does not necessarily mean that we won't end up at the same place in the end, it just means we have different ways of getting there.

In the end I find it helpful to split up tasks. As an example, you handle publicity, and I will handle the set up and food. I like the set up part of an event because I can run in my own lane with my charts, diagrams and plans while the others can be creative and make the place look pretty!

My hat's off to everyone who volunteers to help out. Whether you are a Type A or B, you're input is necessary. After all, what good is a perfect set up if the flowers don't look good!?

A Science Fair Winner!!!

Hello all,

Wow, guess what? (actually you can probably see from the title of this post) My kid won the school science fair!!! Way to go!!! It's okay for me to be excited, right??

If you want to see the details on her project, see my previous post.

This is a great honor for her.