Dear Friends,

Sorry about the lack of posts. This is what I do lately:

work, sleep, work, sleep, work.

I used to be so good at this blog stuff. I used to be so good at being employed. I used to be so good at taking a picture every day. I guess it just takes getting used to.

My girlfriends are my salvation. You all know who you are. From those of you I haven't seen in years, and one I never even met, that's you Katrina! to those I am fortunate to see every week, I love you all. Hearing about your new babies! and the children! and your lives! it all makes my life rich.

Merry Christmas!

Christ the Savior is born.

Thank goodness.

The Second Dumbest Thing I Ever Did

Remember when I dumped the turkey soup down the drain because I forgot to put a bowl under the strainer?


This ranks right up there.


I have this cute little pocket knife, it's great. It has:

a toothpick
tweezers
a SHARP knife
little baby scissors
and a file





Well, when I was at work the other day, I wanted to use the file to smooth just a small catch on my thumb nail. So I pulled out my trusty knife and THEN,

I laid the blade against my skin to file and swiped it across.

IT WAS THE KNIFE INSTEAD OF THE FILE.

I sliced open my thumb a good one. Blood everywhere.

You can rate which one was the dumbest thing I ever did..............

No disaster dinner THIS year

If you look back to my blog post from last Thanksgiving, you will see that the dinner I made was not great and I was MOST unhappy.

Not this year!

I was a happy cook and a very happy eater.

The turkey was moist and tasty -

The stuffing was excellent -

The mashed potatoes were creamy -

The cranberry sauce was not too orangey -

The squash was not watery -

The pumpkin pie, amazingly enough, was one of the best I ever made (!!!) -

Now if we had just been able to SHARE it with someone, it would have been perfect. See Larry's mom is not too sociable, so if we invite friends to share our Thanksgiving dinner, she doesn't join us. Unless it someone she knows really well and is comfortable with, she stays in her apartment. Since she is 90 years old, we certainly can't leave her alone. But she ate very well and cleaned her plate which is good.

Larry and I took a nap and then we went for a walk, and now I have to gear up for work tomorrow. The Census office is open for business Friday. This full time work is hard on a body!

And the winners are....

The New York Yankees!!!

While I was hopping around the house at 11:58pm right after they won, my cousin Joe called and we laughed and celebrated together over the phone! What a great way to end a great season, celebrating with my cousin -

Here we are again!

Things are looking up!

Not necessarily with the mother but in general, things are better. I was in a bad place for a couple of weeks and now am feeling WAY better and am smiling again!

Yesterday I was an election inspector. What a great job to have for one day! I met lots of nice people and felt like a good citizen.

This is a short update. More to come....

The ups and the downs

Reconnecting with one's mother is not as easy it should be.

Tuesday she rehearsed every terrible thing I had supposedly done since I was born. Not a fun experience.

I envy all of you with good moms. Go give them a kiss. Or call them and tell them how much you appreciate them.

I'm not giving up hope though. There is always hope, right?

Right?

Working things out

There is good news.

My mother is speaking to me again. After 10 years, she has decided that I am not so bad and she actually apologized to me. We talk and laugh and are catching up on 10 years of our lives. I am cautiously optimistic.

Fasting and prayer works. Absolutely. No question.

On another topic -

The Red Cross held its annual fundraiser last month. During the event, they like to show the potential donors a video of a local family who had been helped by us during a fire.

So they interviewed the family and they interviewed me, too ('cause I was part of the team that helped.)

So I'm in this video and I actually like myself in it, kind of, even though now I realize I don't have much of a chin.

What an unfortunate discovery. Chinless. I was better off not knowing.

Love, love October!

This has always been my favorite month.

Ahhhhh, cool, crisp, cozy.

Pumpkins, apples, pretty leaves.

Cider, donuts, stew, soup, yummy warm food.

AND...

General Conference.

Oh my.

We were spiritually fed with wisdom and encouragement and testimony and TRUTH. I have a renewed determination to tell the world that:

THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!

I have read it many times, have prayed for answers and have received them. If you never read it, give it a go. You will find peace in those beautiful words and your soul will be nourished.

www.mormon.org

Always busy -

I've been in training classes for the U.S. Census again. This new phase should take about a month. It's pretty interesting and you meet lots of people.

Some are really NICE.

Others are just KIND of NICE.

Some are STINKERS.

Others are CLUELESS.

Then there is me, struggling along to understand what I'm supposed to do. It's weird. There are some things that I just GET. Then there are some other things that sound absolutely ridiculous that I DON'T get. So I have to find a kind soul in our class who is training like me to explain it in terms that don't make me tear out my hair.

BUT.

I'm making some decent money and doing a service for the USA. In the meantime, Larry does the laundry, ('cause I'm gone all day!!)

And the camera sits here on my desk......

Sad news to report

Well folks, you know Harley the baby dog from next door? They gave him away. The vet supposedly said he was psycho puppy who could turn dangerous at any moment.

I'll give you three guesses how Larry feels about no Harley around:

1. awful

2. very awful

3. so awful he can't even talk about it.

So here's to our sweet little neighbor dog. I don't think he was psycho puppy. I think he needed to be trained. So I am mad and sad at the same time.

He was a nice little dog.

5 Day Water Fast - Day 6

What a good day! I learned how to appreciate food this morning in a new way. I baked apples for us for breakfast. When we sat down and thanked the Lord for our food, it had a whole new meaning for me. I was so grateful. My taste was enhanced. It SMELLED amazing. And oh, tasting that sweet delicious apple with cinnamon, coriander and nutmeg was like a taste of heaven.

From my studying, I learned that I would probably be more hungry after having food for the first time. That really is what has happened. But now I know that being hungry is not an emergency. I will live.

5 Day Water Fast - Day 5

I've lost 8lbs. (amazing, I think.)

Received answers to questions.

Did some soul searching.

Read a lot.

Thought about food a lot.

Got very discouraged.

Survived.

This has been a journey full of awakenings.

Last night was the worst. I almost quit, because of the thoughts that oh it's not worth it, oh my body needs food, oh who cares, oh I just want to eat. Larry encouraged me to continue until today. So I drank (MORE) water and watched the ballgame with his mother and then just went to bed, with a prayer in my heart of thanksgiving for the blessings of this fast.

I was very grateful that today was the last day.

The dumb part of me started this fast after eating most of a huge hamburger at the Red Wings game Saturday night and, get this, the last food that was in my stomach was FRIED DOUGH WITH POWDERED SUGAR. If I ever do this again, I will work up to it by eating good fresh food, lots of fruit and cooked veggies. It will also be the Master Cleanse, which is drinking a concoction of fresh lemon juice, Grade B maple syrup and cayenne pepper every day. Water alone got very old.

This afternoon, I began to drink an organic pomegranate juice blend, a diluted glass every two hours. What a difference!! I feel alive again. My eyes are still NOT puffy which is such a nice perk. I now realize, with a new awareness, that overeating and especially sugar and salt are really bad for me. Without those things, my blood pressure dropped from a high of 143/93 (yikes) to 114/76. Also, my body did not ache.

Thank you to all four! of you who followed me on this journey. I appreciated your good thoughts and well wishes.

More juice awaits....

5 Day Water Fast - Day 4

Before I forget - my photo blog is open to everyone. I didn't remember that it was still private.

Day 4 has been quite interesting. I've had to stay close to the "facilities!"

There still is not real hunger, but this darn wanting to eat is a pain. It is boring not to eat! Water is fine and lovely and I am VERY grateful to have clean, sparkling water, but it gets tiring and not very tasty after a while. I was planning for breaking my fast Friday morning and saw in the refrigerator, Juice! and Nectarines! and a Pear! and Zucchini! Slowly I will introduce food again. Good, fresh fruit and vegetables. I am ashamed to say that there were some days that a veggie did not cross my lips. I am looking at food differently.

Two things I love about this cleansing is that my eyes are no longer puffy. It never really occurred to me how puffy underneath they really were. The other thing is that my body doesn't have its usual stiffness upon awaking. I had learned in the past that white flour and sugar did a number on me, especially in the morning. Remember last year when I wasn't eating any sugar? I should have continued.

I am hoping beyond hope that I can keep my aging body happy and healthy after this experience.

My mind is another story. I like the way I am thinking this week! To be sure, this is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, but the things I am discovering are worth it. I am....

DETERMINED.

COURAGEOUS.

SMART.

SPIRITUAL.

INSIGHTFUL.

Those things are really good to discover about yourself.

I also know that God loves me. He answers prayers in many wonderful ways. I know the Atonement is real.

I am also announcing to the world that my husband is a kind man. He loves me, too.

5 Day Water Fast - Day 3

Today is much better. I am not hungry and actually feel kind of energetic, although a little light-headed. Or spacey. Maybe it's just being tired. Every time I flopped on the couch or the bed today to take a snooze something would wake me up, like the phone or a noise outside or the cat.

I'm getting some answers to the "issues" on my list! The answers are coming through my reading, or just thoughts that occur to me or even in a couple of dreams I've had which are pertinent to why I'm doing this.

Water tastes pretty good again. What's weird though is I am already planning my menu for the weekend, meaning how I will wean myself back to eating. Food is on my mind, but the desire to eat is really not there.

OH! And my lower braces are off! The uppers will be on for another couple of months at least. My retainer is purple and looks ridiculous but it makes me smile so who cares!

I can't say I'm really enjoying this, but I'm not hating it and it is good for me. The benefits are real.

Thanks for the support!

5 Day Water Fast - Day 2

The headache nailed me yesterday. My head was very sad and angry at me. Usually a headache means I am a little dehydrated but since I was drinking a lot, that probably wasn't the case. So I just went to bed about 10:30 and slept REALLY well until about 4am when I woke up with the same unhappy head.

With some prayer and thought, I decided it would be just fine to take a couple of Advil on an empty stomach. I went back to bed, tossed and turned for just a little while, then LO! JOY! - woke up this morning at 8:30, feeling wonderful!!

No headache!

No aches anywhere!

The hollow feeling in my stomach was manageable!

I was still alive!

And now, the things I am learning while fasting are profound. I will share some.

This is hard. It is taking courage and determination to do this. Taking one day at a time helps.

I am really not craving food. It's almost like when we don't drink alcohol, it doesn't matter if there is any around. We just don't drink it so it isn't a temptation anymore. That's how I'm feeling right now about food. I'm just not eating it so it's not a temptation.

What IS hard is the feeling of emptiness banging around in there. This is definitely an emotional journey of trying to be filled with things other than food. I am VERY surprised at how much time (before) I spent considering food. Thinking about it. Planning for it. Preparing for it. Buying it. Cooking it. Eating it. Cleaning up after it. Wandering around looking for some more.

Now, it's just me and myself. Larry of course is here and supportive but this journey is mine. And whoa, it is emotional.

Physically, I am a little irritable and the headache is back, but not as bad as it was yesterday. My mouth has a funny taste in it.

We went for a short walk this afternoon which was nice. Temperatures in the 70's, sunny, lovely and pleasant. I am tired, so I need to take a nap. Part of this whole thing is for me to learn to listen to my body, something I don't usually do. I am sitting a lot in my little nook, reading, thinking, listening.

I AM learning.

5 Day Water Fast - Day 1

While driving home from church this afternoon, I saw a woman and her little boy coming out of a pizza place with the cardboard box that holds my favorite food. My first thought was that I don't have to WORRY about food for the next five days.

It was a good thought.

There are things that should be done today and I want to do them. My Gospel Doctrine lesson for next week, for instance. But I am trying like mad to not let this be just another Sunday. This is my time to look over my list of issues. (Actually, isn't that just the dumbest word? We used to call "issues" "troubles.") But I do have time. I do have time.

Yes I have a list which I will be mulling over and discussing with the Lord. I hope he doesn't get sick of me and my "issues." Nah, he never does.

Water tastes weird today.

Ya know what?

Thanks to all of you who responded about my photo a day. I just decided that it doesn't have to be all or nothing! Imagine that. So I will be on the lookout for cool pics day by day but if I miss a day I won't kill myself.

I just realized that since I stopped doing my Photo of the Day, my desire to blog has dropped off significantly. Soooo, how can I change that? My blog is like a journal, so I'm missing out on recording too many things.

So this is what is going to happen:

After going to the last Red Wings game of the season tomorrow night, I'm going to start a five day fast. I'll be drinking water. That's it.

I feel this need to take five days to myself to feel good again - mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually etc...

After a lot of study and research, a five day water fast with a lot of quiet time sounds just right to me. Larry is supportive, which is good 'cause I won't be doing any cooking! What I will be doing is reading, sleeping, meditating, taking short walks, praying, just trying to get myself together again. I am really looking forward to it.

I will keep you updated as the days go by.

Oh and please, if any of you think this is not good or it's weird or dangerous, don't tell me. I need the encouragement, plus the Lord says I'll be fine!

Blue funk

It's been about TWO weeks since I've posted anything. Man. My life is going by too fast.





All I want to do is read.





My friend Sonnia is here though, which makes life way better. We talk for hours, trying to solve every single problem at once.





My house is full of dust. If we open the windows, all the dirt from the construction outside comes in.




I'm going crazy. It's Larry's fault. (not really :O)

Weird stuff going on

It seems I have been in a period of inactivity lately. My get up and go got up and went. I don't know why. I think I'm coming out of it now though, so I'm posting three pictures, although they could cause nightmares....

Do you remember Redd E. Fox from last year? He is the 911 mascot and makes appearances at events around the area. He showed up at the Red Cross Thursday on a tricycle, circling the desks like a vulture, rapping about 911. But he needed some internal surgery so here he is with his innards hanging out, and his body ignored. It was pathetic.

Next..... looking west.......


and looking east........

These two pictures show our road.

Or what is left of our road.

Those two guys in the upper shot are in front of our driveway in a trench that is at least eight feet deep. It's dusty and dirty and we can't open the windows when they are working.

AND,

they start with the noise and the machinery at the early hour of 6:30 AM, for heaven's sake.

It is a rude awakening from dreamland.

RAIN!

The most interesting thing happened a little while ago. REALLY!

The husband, the mother-in-law and I were sitting in the porch, just hanging out, and watching the goldfinches dining at the bird feeder. Allofasudden we HEARD this rain pouring down, but it wasn't raining at our house. Then we could SEE it down the road, just an incredible torrent, and then after a few seconds, it hit our house and it really came down.

I had never witnessed hearing rain before seeing it, then actually seeing it just a 1/10 of a mile away.

I was amazed. I loved it!

Doesn't take much to make me happy!

Now to get revved up!

Well thanks to my loyal readers for the input. I have to get in gear to start taking pictures again. They will be posted on the other blog here with a link on this blog. I will just have to find stuff that is interesting. 

OUR ROAD is in such a mess that I should be taking a picture of the new mess that occurs each day! It is so dusty some days that this truck with a water sprayer in the back comes and wets down everything. Maybe I'll find it and snap a photo.....

Lovely summer here in the Roc

Well I thinks it's lovely anyway. Some years we get awfully hot and humid weather, which I HATE. 

But this year so far, it's been in the 70's a LOT, with storms and rain and all kinds of weird things, like HAIL. So this is a Mary Ann kind of summer!

Today is going to be beautiful. Sunny and warm. Jo-Ann and I are supposed to be going to the ball game tomorrow night but the forecast calls for thunderstorms. I LOVE thunderstorms, just not at the ballpark.....

On another topic -

Since I stopped doing my "Photo a Day" blog, this blog is not as riveting and thought-provoking and stupendous as I would like. I'm not taking as many pictures, so now it's kind of blah. If I resurrect taking a picture every day, I think this blog will be better by default.

Hmmmmm.......maybe I don't need to take a picture EVERY day, which did get kind of old, but every week? Every other day? What do you, all my loyal readers think? I am open to suggestions and comments. I do love and appreciate your comments.

Let me get lost in Yankee Stadium or "I love this country!"

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Like I've said before, there are times in life that are so good, you just have to pinch yourself. Then I remember that God wants us to have joy!

We live in this wonderful, God given land. The fireworks we will hear tonight are not real bombs. This is a country like no other. I am grateful.

This is joy.

This too, is joy - Family! 

My cousin Katie and her mom Joanne at Yankee Stadium Wednesday night, with me so happy that I'm dazed.

Family!

Me with my cousin Joe between innings, wearing our Yankee jerseys. We grew up together here in Rochester. We are two of the eight grandkids that (literally,) lived within shouting distance of each other and he is 363 days older than me - Joe November 18, and me November 16 . Those days of childhood were charmed. Now as adults, we can recapture some of those dazzling days and feel like kids again!

Yankees Robinson Cano, Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter

Moonrise over Yankee Stadium

As we were leaving, I needed to get one more shot before the magic was over.

Even if you are not a baseball fan, the stadium is a sight to behold. New, bright, modern and accessible. I was enchanted.

Hail, wind, rain and a good fundraiser

Friday was quite the day. I was part of a garage sale fundraiser, so we worked setting it up and sold good stuff and talked to lots of people. Lovely weather, not too hot, no rain, just great.

We heard some thunder but it didn't get dark like it sometimes does before a storm.

Then allofasudden, the RAIN came pouring down. Then came the WIND. And then the HAIL started pelting everything and boy did we scramble!

The street turned into a river, the temperature dropped, the thunder and lightning were crashing around us so bad and the hail was BIG, some pieces the size of a nickel and even bigger. I got scared because the wind was so strong and I thought we might wind up in a tornado. We ran around to get the stuff back into the garage before it all got drenched.

What a storm. Some homes lost power. Then it was over. Crazy.

Pouring rain and hail......

This is how much rain fell in a half hour.......

And I borrowed a picture from a friend to show the hail....

My ear hurts

Last baseball game I went to? You know. The Red Wings? This girl was sitting next to me and screamed so loud she hurt my ear. It still hurts. I wondered if she damaged my eardrum. That was two weeks ago. 

Then again, maybe I have a bug. Not a REAL bug, maybe a virus?

My mood is strange today. Larry is off having lunch and driving go-carts with some of the guys from his old job. I'm glad he's gone for a few hours but it all seems, well, off somehow. Men don't DO lunch. Well maybe they do.

There is so much construction going on outside that it's noisy. Dump trucks and back hoes and all sorts of nonsense out there.

The good news is: ta da-

I'm going to a Yankee game with my cousins again!

Today

It is such a lovely day here in Rochester, one of those perfect summer days that God gives us once in a while. It's about 70 degrees, with a gentle breeze, lots of sun and all is well.

I am grateful.

I just wanted you to know.

Total Solar Eclipse

I've always wanted to see a total eclipse, but they are usually too far away, like Siberia for heaven's sake, or somewhere else VERY far away.

So one day I searched the internet to see if there was a total eclipse coming to our neck of the woods sometime before I died.

WELL.

What I found was most interesting. I'm giving you an eight year heads up.

There will be a total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, going right over the United States from northwest to southeast.

Some of you may also be interested in this following bit of information:

Totality goes right over Adam-ondi-Ahman, as well as Independence and Liberty Missouri and BYU-Idaho. 

WOW, huh?

Look HERE for maps and all sorts of information on the eclipse.

Larry singing! Larry yelling! Larry clapping!

Me too, of course.

I surprised Larry with tickets to see the Beatles tribute band RAIN today. Look here for information. OH MY GOODNESS. They were absolutely fabulous and outstanding and any other great adjective you can think of. We LOVED the whole show! We yelled and danced and clapped and sang, it was so much stinkin' FUN and we enjoyed it together!!!!

Okay I tried to like it....

Some of you may know that I was not too excited about the book Twilight. It was okay, but no great shakes for me. 

Well.

I really wanted to see the movie because I thought the story was fairly decent and maybe the movie would be good. If you promise not to send me hate mail, I will confess that I could not get through it. Oh. My. I got as far as Bella getting almost killed by the car and Edward saving her. That was it.  

I really thought it was terrible.

The acting, the direction, the sound, the MAKEUP!  What were they thinking??

Oh no. Could I be acting........OLD??????  Oh no.

Family Picture Wednesday

Back to my mother's side of the family!

This is my beautiful great-grandmother Serafina Graziano. I don't remember too much about her as she died when I was a child. I do know she was an accomplished seamstress. But.....

......I visited her hometown of Termini Imerese in Sicily and walked the street where she grew up. It was one of the best parts of my trip. Her hometown is on the northern coast of Sicily and is just lovely. This is Via Stenio, her street.....

.....and this is a picture that I took of her town  in 2006.

These folk are her parents, my great-great-grandparents. On the left is Angelina Filippello and her husband is on the right, Salvatore Graziano. See how one of his eyes is kind of droopy? My eye tends to do the same thing!

This is my great-grandfather Gaetano Metildi. He was born in Celano, Italy. The only thing I remember about him was that he gave lots of kisses!

These are his parents, my great-great grandparents, Cecilia Rosati and Luigi Metildi. Look at how tiny her waist was!  

The story I learned about Luigi is very cool. As I was researching his birth, I found that he had been abandoned in the town square as a newborn just a few days old, and was found there one morning. My great-great-great-grandparents adopted him a couple of years later. Larry likes to tease me that he was from Romanian gypsies and I'm not Italian at all! I have wondered if the couple who adopted him might have really been his birth parents. Great-greatgrandpa died when a big earthquake hit his town in 1915.

Demolition Day

SO.

This is our road in front of our house and this is our driveway. Or what used to be the driveway. The town is building us a new road (!!) and so now we are in a complete and utter mess, as Simon Cowell would say.

The mess of our driveway.

Sidewalk and driveway in shambles.

The shovel picking up the concrete sidewalk in our yard.

Actually this is pretty cool. 

He's bringing the concrete 

slab over to the pile to drop it.

And there it goes! The house shook.

So after the guy dumped all the debris into the dump truck, they put some dirt down so we can drive over it.  What a summer it will be, watching all this go on!

"I'm going to Larry's."

This is about the funniest thing I've heard in a LONG, LONG time. Get this -

Larry was outside talking to our neighbor and she had a story to tell him. Turns out she and her five year old daughter had a "disagreement." Next thing she knows, the kid has pulled out her suitcase, and packed it with her pillow, blanket and clothes. Mom asks her where she is going. 

Little girl declares, "I'm going to LARRY'S."  

So the mom, with a straight face, says okay, she figures we're only next door and she knows where the kid would be. 

That's when the little one says, "Well, I'll give you another chance, mom."  

Is that funny or what? 

Larry went nuts laughing! He is a good grandpa-type guy and plays with the little girls on their swing set and all, and now she wants to run away next door and live with us. Or live with just Larry apparently.

THEN,

a few days ago, the same little kiddo and her baby sister show up at their house with tulips. 

"Here mom," they say. "These are for you!"  

The mom asks the girls where they got the tulips because they don't have any in their yard. 

They say, "We got them at LARRY"S!"  

So the mom is thankful, yet all mad because they picked someone's flowers and tells them they should never do that. 

Then the older one, looking confused says, "Well, Larry wouldn't mind!"

I love it. He's like Captain Kangaroo or something.

Reflecting on Mother's Day

The Lord has blessed me with good women in my life, in particular my grandmothers and aunts.


This sweet picture is of my father's baptism day in 1921.  On the left is my Great-Aunt Rose. She didn't bear children but she mothered us all. She took care of me when my mother couldn't. On the right is my grandmother Melina. She was the best woman I ever knew.  She is so beautiful in this picture. The baby of course, is my dad. 

This is my Aunt Nickie. I loved this woman. She is my father's sister. She died a couple of years ago, in her 80's. She was my great example of a lady and an extraordinary mother.

And my Grandma Ceal (Cecilia) - you've read about her in past blogs. She was my pal.

And this is my mother, when she was young and beautiful and still fairly okay. I love this picture.

Someday, in the eternities, I'll have my own kiddos. Will I be ready???  Yikes.

Borrrrring.....

There is nothing going on. The census work is done for now, my diverticulitis is acting up (at least I think that's what it is,) we need a new furnace and I'm TIRED. If this isn't the most boring blog post ever, I don't know what is. I'll post a picture  just for kicks.

This is the Pike Place Market in Seattle. We went there after the Alaska trip. The flowers were gorgeous and plentiful!

Family Picture Monday

Now for my father's side of the family -

This picture I love. It's my dad (Nicholas Cardella) as a little kid looking very dapper in his uncle's grocery store. This had to have been 1927 or '28. On the top shelf is all kinds of cereal, like Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Puffed Rice and Rice Krispies. I think my dad is standing in front of the candy bins. I love his socks!

Then this is my dad's father, my grandfather Giuseppe Cardella. He was born in Agrigento Sicily in 1884. This may be the picture taken on his wedding day.  He was a shoemaker and shoe repairman and opened his own shoe store here in Rochester. He arrived in the USA in the early 1900's. 

My mother said that he was so sick with cancer and was in bed a lot when I was born, but was SO happy that I had come along. He wanted me near him, so she would plop me down in the bed beside him so we could get to know each other. He died in 1953 when I was exactly three months old. 

These next folks are his parents, my great-grandparents. You will love their names - Nicholena D'Amato and Gerlando Cardella! My father was named after this grandmother. It's a funny story. Traditionally, the first born child was always named after the paternal grandfather. The next child was named after the maternal grandfather. Baby number three was named after the paternal grandmother. My father was third in line so he was named Nicholas, which is the masculine form of Nicholena. Well then baby number four comes along and it's a girl, so they named her after the paternal grandmother as well. So there was a Nicholas AND a Nicholena! My father and my aunt were both Nickie's!  

I love it.

But isn't this such a classic photo? When my dad got older, he looked almost exactly like this grandfather of his. They had the same smile. He was a shoeman, too. So was my father.

My dad - doesn't he look like his grandpa above?

AND, here is me. That dog is just the coolest thing in the world.

Everything hurts

even my toes.

This walking so much I know is good for me but good grief.

I dream about the census.  It's taking over my life!!!!

One guy today told me he didn't believe that I was from the census bureau. He said that nobody told HIM we would be going door to door this year. And he reads the paper EVERY DAY. Well, excuuuuuuse me! 

I had to laugh.

Walking my feet off

Well. my U.S. Census training this week was good. I haven't walked this much since I was in Italy!!! 

My feet are sore. 

It's fun though. I'm meeting nice people and making some money and having the government pay me for exercising. 

I won't need to use the treadmill for weeks!

Larry, the baby dog, and snow

It snowed. 

On April 7. 

I was mad but guess who had a GOOD time?  That's right, Larry and Harley!!

Larry put him on his shoulder like a pirate with his little parrot. How cute is that?

THEN, Larry made snowballs out of the pink water dish I keep outside for the dog. His own little arsenal. Larry throws them, Harley races for them. Unfortunately, the wind blew them over the railing. Bummer.