Cute birdie

Lookit this cute baby robin!!

Larry took its picture a couple of days ago while he was hopping around the yard. (The bird, not Larry!)

Rochester? Or Tucson.............

Hot

Dry

Brown

Is this Rochester or is this the desert?

After pretty much the wettest Spring since the dawning of time (or at least the dawning of Rochester) we are in a hot drought. Today the weatherman is calling for possibly 100 degrees with a heat index of 110.

Really?

The grass is brown. The flowers are wilting. PEOPLE are wilting. The Red Cross is opening up cooling stations today.

And speaking of hot, two girlfriends and I went to Toronto Saturday to see the Yankees play the Blue Jays!!

The good - Yankees won! Excellent game, beautiful stadium, being with friends.

The bad - Delays at the border, traffic on the QEW, hard to park, prices at the ball park.

The ugly - ME after sweating in the heat! We finally had to move to outfield seats

where there was shade.

All in all, a great day!

OH! And while we were buying hot dogs at the ballpark Saturday, I started talking to a

young couple who turned out to live right here in our neighborhood!! I loved it.

45,000 people in Toronto Rogers Centre for a ballgame and the two people in line

behind me are from Greece! I mean really.

Of course, this is the man of the year Derek Jeter, taken from our wonderful seats in the hot SUN.

And this is C.C. Sabathia who is the greatest pitcher and who pitched an outstanding game.

Rogers Centre, notice the fancy schmancy Canadian spelling of "center"

And this is Nick Swisher (or maybe Francisco Cervelli) getting ready to smash the ball

And of course as you know, I just LOVE this!!

Love that Jeter

There are three diamonds that I love.

1. My engagement ring

2. Neil Diamond

3. The baseball diamond

Saturday found me ringing my cowbell as I watched the Yankee game on television with my mother-in-law Lee Etta. We were waiting along with the rest of the baseball world for Derek Jeter to hit his 3oooth base hit. It is a VERY big deal.

Me: "Mom, wouldn't it be so cool if Derek's 3000th hit was a home run?"

Lee Etta: "Hmmm!"

Me: (ringing the cowbell) "It would be just the best!"

Lee Etta: "Uh huh"

He hits a home run.

I go crazy. Lee Etta smiles.

Lee Etta: "He did it."

Me: (jumping up and down like a kid and disturbing the peace with the cowbell) "I TOLD you it would be a home run!!!!! Hooray! Hooray!"

I love baseball. I JUST LOVE BASEBALL!!

Cranky and cuckoo

Okay so I smashed my head into the door over a month ago. It still hurts.

Yeah.

My memory is shot.

I'm foggy.

Sometimes this is normal for me!

But I do wonder why it still hurts some. I really don't think I had a concussion. But I do wonder......

OH! Our kitty seems a little better. She hasn't thrown up in days and loves the chicken I make. Yesterday I got a nice chicken and roasted it for her. Larry said, "Why did you make it so good for the CAT?"

Yes, I did let Larry eat some of it!

Everything?

Ya know when it seems that EVERYTHING is going wrong?

Taking a Break From Being Happy

I can't help it.

Today was a bad day.

My friend who had oral cancer for the second time now has five spots on her lungs.

How do people deal with this without faith? Thankfully she has it.

Going to the temple tomorrow. The happy news is that we will witness the beginning of an eternal family in the most sacred room on earth. A dear family in our ward is being sealed.

June is Bustin' Out All Over

We've had some dandy weather.

WIND

HEAT

CHILL

MORE WIND

Ah well, we're still here and not blown away.

One another note, my head is better. The discoloration is mostly gone and there is just a teeny bit of soreness left.

I went for a massage Monday...... (THANK YOU to my darling husband for that gift...) and the massage therapist thinks I had a minor whiplash. Since I didn't crash HEAD first into the door, I crashed FOREHEAD first with my head up a bit, it's possible. And my neck does hurt but I never thought of whiplash. Nevertheless I am better.

On a sad note, our kitty seems to be failing. She wants to eat all the time 'cause she throws up almost every day, and she is just really skinny now. I boil her some chicken and she LOVES that! It's the highlight of her day! But she seems to be wasting away. She's affectionate and loving and wants to be near us which is good. She is almost 18 years old and I dread what is coming.

I love this picture of her. She looks like she needs a tiara.

Shiners Are NOT attractive

(I couldn't take looking at that awful picture anymore! GONE!)

There is still a bump. I know you are all jealous.

But seriously, I feel very grateful. When I fell, I could have broken bones. Or the glass in the door could have shattered. Or my glasses could have shattered. Maybe I had a concussion, who knows? But all in all, it could have been worse.

I really AM grateful!

What the Hail

Last night, amid pouring rain and wind and thunder and lightning, the hail came pelting us with ice stones. It was actually pretty cool. They weren't terribly big but big enough that I wanted my mother-in-law to see them.

So I ran out the front door to grab a couple pieces of hailstones.

Then I attempted to run back in the house.

HA!

HA!

Instead, I fell. Actually slammed into the glass storm door WITH MY HEAD.

My glasses went flying, ZOOM off my head.

This is what I look like.

Two lumps on my forehead. Black and blue. My legs all scraped up. My glasses all bent. My face all swollen.

I'm a mess.

All this to show Larry's mother some dumb hail that all but melted in my hand before I got back in the house. But I hung on to it!

So this might be the third dumbest thing I ever did. The first and second are here and here.

A Pretty Amazing Weekend

So I've been doing a lot of studying about nutritional healing and stuff. I was all worried that I might be having gallbladder issues, so I did a regimen that is suppose to heal it. Yeah right, right? But this is what I did, according to the book:

For one day, all I ate was apples. Granny Smith.

ALL DAY.

Then before bed, I took two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil,

and two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

It was amazingly good, not gross at all. I did that for five nights.

I HAVE NO PAIN.




Really.

No pain.

I also found out thanks to our friend Paul that drinking aloe vera juice will prevent acid reflux and eliminate the need for prescription medication.

It WORKS!!!

I am happy.

Then, our Stake Conference was this weekend. Sunday's session was a broadcast for the Northeast. We were sitting with our little pals -



and their parents. I was feeling grateful and sad at the same time. I love that young family and am VERY grateful to have them in our lives. Tender mercies of the Lord, you know?

Yet I was getting all weepy eyed, thinking YET AGAIN, "where are MY children?" then feeling bad because I still get that way after all these years.

Then somehow this happens. God knows us. The speaker, Elder W. Craig Zwick quoted from the Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-3

1Verily I say unto you my friends, ^afear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give ^bthanks;

2^aWaiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

3Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been ^aafflicted shall work together for your ^bgood, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.

You can imagine how I felt. It was like the Lord was right there in my heart.

Like I said, pretty amazing weekend.

I Can't Eat WHAT?

I think I'm having gallbladder issues. Of course I am not sure. But considering that the pain occurred right after Larry and I had ONION RINGS, it's a good bet.

It is definitely weird pain. Almost like spasms around my back and to the front. It's been happening for a few days now and I am mad. Not only have the Yankees lost three, count 'em THREE games in a row, I have pain.

Curses.

I Broke a Man's Heart

I did. Really.

You'll love this story!

It happened forty years ago but just the other day I heard the WHOLE story.

Okay so I was 18 or 19 and we had friends from Sicily who had a nephew (Giovanni) coming to America for a visit. They thought he and I should meet. He was looking, and I was available but not necessarily looking.

This was me........

No No! Just kidding. (That's really my great great aunt Cesidia.)

THIS is me when I was cute. Except for the glasses.

So the meeting between the families was arranged. They came over to my grandmother's house......

and we sat outside in the yard.

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

He had reddish hair and was a little older than me, maybe like 25 or so. He was in the Italian Navy.

These were my thoughts:

"He's a nice man but not for me. He's too old. I can't speak Italian. I don't want to live in Sicily. This is ridiculous. HELP!!"

But we continued to furtively glance at each other. I didn't know what to do except smile.

(It gets better.)

So a few days later my parents and I were invited over to our friend's home for dinner. We were all sitting at this long table eating wonderful food when someone poured Giovanni a drink. He tasted it, then gave it to me to try. I'm dumb, so I took a sip.

WELL.

Everyone started cheering and clapping and carrying on like something BIG just happened. I was of course, clueless. I don't remember what happened after that.

Later, as we were leaving to go home, our friends' little 6 year old daughter came up to me and asked, "Can I be in your wedding?"

WHAT?????

I said, "I'm not getting married!!"

And she said, "Sure you are. You're marrying my cousin Giovanni."

I said, "Oh no I'm not. What makes you think we are getting married?"

Bless her heart, she looked at me like I was crazy and answered, "Of course you're getting married. You drank out of the same glass!"

WHAT????? (Do you see a pattern here?)

I looked at my father, pulled him outside and said, "DO something!"

The rest of the story is that my father had to explain to the family that I didn't understand what I was doing and that in my world, drinking from the same glass didn't mean I was marrying the guy.

Last Sunday as we were remembering this story with the same friends from forty years ago, I found out that Giovanni was so heart-broken that he cried and cried. Apparently he really loved me and wanted to marry me and take me to Sicily to meet his parents, NOT to live there. Ooops.

Nevertheless, I cannot understand this because we knew each other for like maybe three hours.

So the poor heart-broken man said that if he couldn't have Mary Ann he didn't want anybody so he went home to Sicily and never came back.

Rumor has it that he got over me, married a nice Sicilian girl and has four sons (and probably lots of grandchildren.)

I apparently knew that someone better was coming along in less than ten years!

What can I say?

I'm hooked on LOVE!





(check out the little kid....!)

Yes, I woke up early to watch the WEDDING, remembering doing the same thing 30 years ago to watch Charles and Diana.

Loved Kate's dress.

Loved how the prince and his brother looked in their uniforms. So dashing.

Loved the music.

Oh and Kate's sister with the little girls!

It was like the picture perfect wedding and I rejoiced with them.

I hope it will be a great marriage.

BUT THEN THERE IS THIS........

These two poor souls are the groom's cousins.

What WERE they thinking?



I am so glad I wasn't invited to this wedding because I look terrible in hats. And apparently the alien antenna look is in this year.

The most exciting thing all day

Can you guess what it is??

I will give you ONE guess.

Give up?

LOOK!

It's Larry holding..............



SUSHI!!!!!

It's a rainy Monday;

and the man buys me sushi because my life is a little stressful right now.

So not only is he adorable, he is a nice man.

It was delicious!!

Crabby Appleton

I have not posted lately because I am feeling like a crazy person.

You don't want to know.

This is me -

Thankfully, Larry still loves me and is patient. He bought me sushi again (!) so I am a little bit happy.

Happy, sad, happy, grumpy, CONFUSED.

HAPPY!

Just to let you know, I am not grumpy right now BECAUSE Larry, when he took his mother to Wegmans, bought me some SUSHI!! Oh joy! Oh happiness! It is so gosh dang delicious.

So Katrina, I guess it took Sushi to make me un-grumpy! And for your viewing pleasure, here is another daisy, just for you!

Promises, promises

Howdy do.

I haven't posted anything because I'm grumpy, and I promised not to be grumpy on my blog any longer.

So let's see. Maybe I can find a happy picture somewhere. Okay I'll look.

Here ya go....

Over the years, Larry has taken some pretty remarkable shots in our garden.

This one below are the flowers on some kind of Japanese bush in the backyard.

These are the same flowers but using a different setting on the camera. I think they look like little stars.

Then he took this shot of Gerbera daisies that I love. The color knocks me out.




Last but not least, a couple of years ago there was a renegade seagull wandering around the front yard. He posed for me in the driveway.

This was the best I could do. It makes me think that maybe I should start taking pictures again!

Don't Ask

The problem with vacations is that I want another one right away.

Happenings

So THIS week -

Monday my friend Gail and I took our other friend Jean out to lunch for Jean's birthday. We went to this AMAZING Italian cafe called Oriens. It's on Long Pond and Maiden Lane. We had a delicious lunch with gelato, of course. I even ran into a friend/client with her little girl who is one of my doula babies all grown up!

This baby will be four in July. And she is beautiful with blondish curly hair.

Tuesday I went to Avon to see my friend of 34 years. I love my friend Pam.

When her daughters came home from school I made them jewelry and of course forgot to take a picture of the girls and their designs. I love those little girls, although I guess ages 9 and 11 officially make them "not so little anymore! " They picked out the beads and stones, then designed their jewelry. I just put them together.

Tuesday night I went to see The Lion King at the Auditorium theater with my cousin Judi.

WOW and WOW. I was in tears the first two minutes. It was an absolutely stunning show, visually and musically. GO SEE IT!!

Wednesday my visiting teachers came over. I love the way women need women. We need each other in a different way from men.

I also made a cheesecake to fulfill the cake auction promise. Every year there is a cake auction to support the boy scout troop. I promised to make the highest bidder a cheesecake whenever they wanted it. The highest bidder won with a bid of $110.00!!!! And he wants it Sunday.

Thursday I went to a training to be an election inspector. You know, the people that are at your polling place when you go vote. It's fun, but we have to be there from 5am until 10pm. I will be *yawning * 'cause I will be one tired person.

Tonight, my cousin Dolores and her husband Bill are coming over for dinner.

That's Dolores on the right and her sister Mary. We grew up next door to each other. Mary lives in Minneapolis and I miss her. We are pals. I love my cousins.

I'm making bacon wrapped chicken breast with blue cheese and pecans rolled up inside, artichoke linguine and Swedish apple pie for dessert.

So that's been my week.

Oh yeah it snowed Wednesday. What a pain.

But spring is coming!! The hyacinths are popping up!!

Maybe It's a Miracle Phone

So my poor drowned MP (Miracle Phone) was a mess. The display was all watery. I never figured it would work again, BUT because I do believe in wonders from above, I plugged in my drenched MP.

It powered up.

When I heard that little Verizon" ding, doodle, doodley-oop" and I saw the logo in the display, my retainers about fell off my newly straightened teeth.

Considering I thought I might get electrocuted or that it would short out and burn the house down, I was quite pleased that nothing bad happened.

Several hours later, the watery display said "fully charged." YIPPEE! I opened the phone and there is the photo of the cat, my name and the time, a little blurry from melted snow, but there all the same. DOUBLE YIPPEE!

I can retrieve all my photos and contacts! Well maybe. I think the Verizon man can do it.

So there you have it. The MP.