Current Obsessions.....

For a while I've been sort of obsessed with certain accessories.

1) HATS: I keep thinking about this Dior beret with all the grommets on it. I also like the beret with the assorted buttons on it.

I actually bought grommets today while at WalMart to embellish my black beret with. I'm not going to go all out like the picture above, I think I'm going to either do a star or a heart patttern. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the Afghani Pakol. I used to have one, but it was too big for my head. I loved it so much. I'll probably break down and get on on Ebay or on the net somewhere. I like the fact that it's wool. I find wool to be the warmest and most durable fiber for outerwear.

2) ORENBURG SHAWLS: I love these gossamer-light goat's hair lace shawls from Russia.

I like the one pictured because it is rectangle, as opposed to the traditional squares that get folded in half to form a triangle. I found an orlon one at H&M which I adore. I'll probably have to Ebay or net that as well.

I finally went berry and cherry picking. The best. That fruit is sooo wonderful!

Today I had to take Harley to the groomer, and after that I went to WalMart for a bit.

We ended up going out to lunch, and going to a couple of import grocery places we like to frequent. I love Greek and Middle Eastern food. I got some whole wheat pita, feta, and Kalamata olives. I went to the Russian market and just got candy. They have the freakiest wrapped chocolate candies. You buy them in bulk. I never know what they are because they are printed in Russian. I just pick out the ones with the most interesting wrappers. About 80% of them are good, and the rest are some very strange marshmallow-y goo or some unidentifiable sweet froth. Some woman was in there buying up medicine imported from Russia. I have no idea what it was, but she was buying a lot. I'm not that brave. I buy the candy and kashi (buckwheat groats). I like to make tabbouleh with the kashi. I could live off that stuff!

When I went into the Middle Eastern store, Mike came in with me. I wonder what was going through his mind. This store is literally stuffed with all sorts of mish-mash everywhere, with vats of olives(uncovered) and fresh food thrown all around. The place is dirty and smells like cheese and spices. All the people who work there speak arabic and they sometimes YELL. I magine there are stores like this in NYC. I like it for that reason, and the prices are so darned cheap!

Tomorrow I have to iron. No, I really have to! I hate that chore. It is so boring.

Perhaps I will go to rent a video and watch it during my ironing.....

Rainbows, Harley and Thyme (actually , Basil.....)

So, the past few days have been a bit busy around here... Mike had his surgery, which went well, and we had to go vote last night because they wanted to do away with our local police department and just have everyone in the area be under the Sherriff's domain. We voted against this, but it passed....

As we were riding down the road to vote, we saw this wonderful rainbow in the sky. The second picture is of my little garden whhich is in the old sandbox in our yard. When the dumpster was here, I removed all the old Chamomile-laden dirt, and replaced it with fresh, rich fill.

I love the way it looks now . One tomato plant, LOTS of basil and parsley, lavender and rosemary. I just planted some seeds today. mesclun. You can see what's going on here.... A little salad garden!


the third picture is of Harley. she was waiting for me to come back up the stairs.

Carrie, Big and Biscotti

So, Jerry and I went to see SATC today. I think he enjoyed it even though he

had never watched the show. I thought it was good, but it wasn't the "big deal" that I was imagining from all the buzz.

He tried to make a joke by saying I should call him 'Mr Big' (ha ha....he's a big guy....)

Later this evening, I had the urge to bake some cookies, so I made biscotti.

I always use the reicipe from Giada DiLaurentis. They always turn out amazing.

Not a lot else going on around here this weekend. I had to go buy dog food from the vet this morning, and so I took Harley along, and then we went to Petsmart to buy fish food for Jerry's fish at work. Harley LOVES to go for rides in the car. She likes Petsmart not because of all the doggie stuff, but for all the attention she gets from workers and customers who see her and stop to pet her. She is such an attention slut. When people pet her she starts wimpering and moaning like she is sooooo starved for attention.

I keep thinking about picking strawberries. Hopefully I can go this week.

Monday, the boy has to have surgery on his broken nose. I feel bad. this will be his first time getting anesthesia and having surgery. He's at a party tonight, so I hope he has a good time.

Happy Father's Day!

Had a good time at the shower yesterday. It was nice to see everyone. I like this picture. It is of my three nieces, daughters to my older sister.
The one on the right is the one who is getting married next month. She is the baby and the last one of them to get married.
We ended up not going to Sephora because we stayed longer at the shower then we figured, and it was raining, and I was just tired.
This morning we went to church, and then the boy took us out for breakfast.
I'm just puttering around here at the moment...not sure what else we will be doing today.
Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there!

Finally finished!

So, today was the day they came and picked up the dumpster.

It feels so good to have that off my mind! The picture of Harley is

her listening to the sound of the truck picking up the dumpster.
I had to go out this morning and run errands, and this afternoon, my busy week finally caught up with me and I crashed. Jerry called me to see if I wanted to go out for supper, and at first I said no, but then I changed my mind. I never go out for supper!

We had some really great manicotti which were brought in from some specialty place in New York city. We also had some antipasto which was sopressata, roasted peppers, mushrooms, good provolone and it was dressed with lemon and olive oil, and had paper-thin slices of lemon on it. I will be duplicating this. because I LOVED the combination ofthe rich ingredients with the lemon slices! It tasted so summery, like something you would be eating in Italy, under a big umbrella near the sea.

Afterwards, I went to get Jerry a Father's Day present, and stopped into Marshall's to see the boy.

Not sure what we are doing this weekend. Jerry said he might like to go to the Casino, and tomorrow we have to go to Rochester for a bridal shower.

I was thinking of maybe stopping at eastview Mall on the way back so I could go to Sephora, but I don't know if I will. We always have the dog with us when we go out that way and can never stop. Tomorrow she will stay here with the boy, so we could go.....HMMMM.....

I was so shocked to hear that Tim Russert passed away. In a Presidential election year too!

So sad, he seemed like a really decent guy.

WTF????

Today I went and got Harley's medicine from the vet. A bottle of 100 tablets was 66.00! when I got home I googled this product. It was being sold online everywhere for 19.33.......

I decided to call the vet and ask what was up? The receptionist was not too nice to me.

She explained to me that the reason the medicine costs so much is because they can guarantee that I am getting exactly what it says on the bottle's label (and not sawdust or something, I guess.) She also had to add that it is the price that they are charged . She then told me she wasn't going to discuss how much their markup was on stuff..... Very icy.She wasn't too happy to answer my questions and I have a feeling she has either answered this question a few hundred times before, or she just didn't like having to be asked a question in which the true answer is not very nice.

I hate pissing people off, but she shouldn't have been so mean to me, I was just asking a question... I told her that I was just wondering, that's all....

Now Harley has to take these tablets for a month , which is roughly 30 days, but there are 100 pills in the bottle! that makes no sense either... I hope she doesn't have to be on them forever, bcause that would be 66 dollars every 3 months.(that's assuming the price doesn't go up!)

My head aches.

J'ai mis les ordures dans la poubelle

It sounds so much classier in French, don't you think?
"I have put the garbage in the trash".
This is the end of day one getting rid of all my stuff in the dumpster. 20 years of this and that...
It really adds up when you are a pack rat like me!
it has been easier than I would have expected to toss things out with abandon. Very freeing.
I'm glad I decided to put the dumpster under the window. It is so nice not to have to lug everything downstairs like I did on Friday and Saturday.
I see what my obsessions are: magazines(mostly), cosmetics(which are mostly all wrong for me) and handbags and various clothing items.
I haven't decided if I'm going to throw away yarn or not. I probably should get that down to a reasonable amount.
It has gone a lot faster than I thought it would. I had the stuff somewhat organized but it just kept building up.
I want to go through it again and throw even more away. I just want to be one of those people who don't keep much around. (for once). I think having all this stuff around that I NEVER would use again has been the cause of may-jah anxiety. I feel somewhat ashamed to be such a mess.
Plus add to that the fact that I put some kind of emotional value on every piece of CRAP I was hanging on to. I have figured out that I am trying to fill a hole with "stuff"....junk I buy, and food?
AGH!...I'm too old to be acting this way! Enough. yes, Enough.
Je suis fin avec le desordre.

Sunday

We went to Jerry's company picnic today. On the way, it started pouring, but as we got closer, it stopped and was nice the rest of the afternoon. This is the lodge we were in. they had a large tent erected where the picnic tables are in the picture. This lodge is beautiful! It has air conditioning inside, and a huge stone fireplace, and stone floors. Lots of room. There is a separate adjoining room they used to set up the food, which was catered by some BBQ/rib place. After we ate, we went outside under the tent and talked, and took part in a music trivia game. Our team came in 4th (:( ) but we still won prizes.

It was the most fun I've had at one of these picnics. A very nice time.

After we left the picnic (we were there over 4 hours!) we drove around that area for a bit and looked at any houses that were for sale.

No dumpster fun today..... I have plenty of time before Friday to finish what I need to do.

Plus, I will be home alone, so I can accomplish more (hopefully.....) without distraction.

I am going to try and take a picture of my dumpster to post here so you can see all my hard work.

Friday

First of all, I know there are spots on this picture. It is a picture of a picture but I like it.
Harley made it through the vet visit and was a little sore yesterday. The vet's just called me today with the results of her urinalysis. They are still seeing high PH levels, and some crystals in her urine, so now she has to take Calcium Citrate to balance things out, and keep the crystals at bay. I guess this is pretty common, and I shouldn't complain, because she has been so healthy.
I just see it as a sign she is getting old. she turned 10 yesterday (!). I cannot believe she is 10!
It thundered and lightning-ed out last night and she barked up a storm because she was so scared. At one point, a very LOUD clap of thunder happened, and I don't think I've heard one that loud in years.I guess it hit about a half mile from here and caused a fire. I thought maybe it split a tree in half.
Other GOOD news.....I got my dumpster delivered today!!!! HOORAY!
I started throwing stuff in it already. I'm finding it easier (right now) throwing things away, but I haven't gotten to my stuff yet....LOL I'm in the kitchen right now.
Possibly, we will be going to the Taste of Syracuse Festival and/or/ the Greek festival this weekend depending on how much we get accomplished with the dumpster project.....
we have it for a week, so I think we will have time to do something fun.
Plus, Jerry's company picinic is on Sunday.
ANTI'O SAS!

I'm STUFFED!

Went out to eat (again!) tonight. This is very unusual for me. This time we went to Plainville Turkey Farms Restaurant. It's like eating Thanksgiving dinner buffet style.

Had lots of salad, and lots of turkey. Now I am stuffed!

I sort of wasted the day today. Went and had coffee at Barnes and Noble, and then looked around Target and TJMaxx. I am procrastinating doing all my sorting and throwing stuff away.

My huge dumpster comes on Friday. I want to be really good and get rid of so much stuff without putting emotional worth on it. I always do that, and that's why I'm in the situation I'm in now. I can never throw anything out. I WILL. I WILL throw things away and not look back!

(that will be my mantra....)

Tomorrow I have to take Harley to the vet for her yearly check up. she has to get a few shots and I always dread that because she sometimes has a reaction to the serum they give her for distemper. Poor baby.....

Tuesday

Today I got up and mowed the lawn. Our lawnmower was broken and it just came back from the shop, so I had to get to it before it rained today.
I came in, went on the computer for a bit and chatted with my cousin Don. He is a distant cousin on my father's side, but we always called him cousin as a joke. He is the same age as I am and was a friend during my school years. I just recently connected wit him again on Classmates.com, and it has been nice chatting with him again!
I then took a shower, and went to the post office and mailed a package, then I got some lunch at BK and came home to eat it. I puttered around here for the afternoon, and then a friend and I went and got pizza from Avicolli's.
Avicolli's is a local restaurant that is like a 4th member of our family. My husband is there just about every day and probably eats there more often than I cook for him!
I hadn't been therein a while so I stopped on the way out to say hello to the bartender. She was surprised and happy to see me, and gave me a huge hug.
Not sure what I'll end up doing tomorrow. I do have to run a few errands in the morning and possibly go through some clothing and my closet.
I do want to make polenta tomorrow. I have been dreaming of it for over a week.

RIPYSL

Sad news on the fashion front today. Monsieur Yves St. Laurent passed away after a long illness. This photo almost makes him look like a happy person, but that was not the case. He was tortured throughout his life with insecurity and illness (some mental). I saw a documentary about him once, where Lou Lou De la Falaise and Catherene Deneuve were saying at one point he was so depressed, they had to intervene and get him help for his depression and illness because he was not designing or doing much of anything.
He always reminded me of the late 70's and early 80's when fashion was so grand and over the top. Big shoulders, bigger egos, and so much excess that even too much was not enough. you know... the days before AIDS took the rose colored glasses off everyone's eyes and Steve Rubell went to jail. When Coke wasn't a drink, it was snuffed up your nose.
Actually, I don't mean to sound cynical... I LOVED this time period. I miss the days of excess fashion and people living large and free.
Back to YSL. I loved his collections especially the Mondrian dresses and all those wonderful knits . I loved his fragrances. OPIUM. RIVE GAUCHE (which was actually my signature fragrance at the time!) That medium blue color always reminds me of YSL....
I feel sad.
RIPYSL.