Ah, Saturday....already a distant memory.

Hurray for the first hockey practice of the year. Nothing says summer like ice skates and pucks.

I escaped went to Connecticut yesterday to drink and gamble spend some quality time with my stepfather's family (who were visiting from New York).

I had absolutely no intentions of either drinking or gambling but I was powerless to resist. The family met up at my stepfather's parent's house and after some "How are ya"s and "Where are the kids??" we headed here. It's approximately 7 minutes away. I grew up relatively close to this area and have no love for the casinos. Great for jobs but mostly they suck the life out you. I haven't given any money to the Great Cause of the Mohegans or Mashantuckets for many years. They have plenty of cash and I work too hard to give them more. I'd rather have new shoes.

This side of the family used to meet in Saratoga Springs for the Traver's Stakes race. We hung at the track, eating laughing and drinking the day away while wagering on the ponies. The NYRA is kind enough to put TVs in the trees outside so that you can spend your time and your money foolishly while still enjoying the fresh air. Thank you, New York State.

My stepfather's dad is ill. Recently diagnosed with lung cancer. He wanted to spend Traver's Weekend with his family in New York but it was not to be and so the family brought Traver's Weekend to him. Although one of the family is a former bookie, no real wagering took place at the house - we needed betting windows and tickets so off to the Mohegan Sun we caravaned.

We found the racing area and drinks in hand, made our wagers. Oh, we've got some time before the big race? Howsabout that martini bar? One potent watermelon martini later we receive a phone call....can you box that quinella for the Travers? Shit. That's a fifteen minute walk from here and well, bottom's up. We box the quinella and the only winner was a bet placed mistakenly.

My stepsister and I ordered more drinks before the rest of the bunch told us it was time to go. So we stayed. She is young and very, very pretty and there was some male attention. So we stayed. They chatted and I played winggirl and hung out and talked sports with the buddies. They offered drinks, we declined and laughed like fools all the way to the valet parker.

Off to lunch with grammy now, enjoy your Sunday.

nope. Still bored.

yawn. no post now, too boring.

All this and it's only Wednesday

Well, the plans for Boston were scrapped...it involved either commuter trains or subways with minimal parking or parking garages that cost more than whatever activity you've got planned. Too much scheduling for my limited mental capacity this week.

Blackbird talked me out of the mini golf. No, really she didn't but the girlie's attention span starts to fade around the tenth hole and quite frankly I just wasn't up for kidsville today.



We instead drove north of the city.


















North to the Stone Zoo. The kids, they love zoos - me? Not so much. I get what I call Free Willy Syndrome. Remember ole' Willy with his droopy dorsal fin that made him look so pathetically sad? That image has burned itself into my brain leaving me with a whole boatload of guilt for paying money to look at animals in cages. I digress. The main reason we even went this far was the Raptor Show. My boy is a freak for owls, eagles, hawks and such.






After the zoo we went to this art store I found online. My girlie is addicted to paper. Notecards, envelopes, stickers, stamps...you name it. The zoo was relatively close by (only 6.72 miles but 35 long traffic filled minutes) so I mapquested my way over and let the kids pick out some treasures. My son picked out a chinese jumprope and a book about cat's cradle and such. I had to vehemently dissuade him from purchasing scrapbooking supplies. SCRAPBOOKING. Holymotherofgod. I have fought tooth and nail so that I won't be dragged down the slippery slope to scrapbooking. No amount of 'Come on you have to do its' has worked....and there's been alot of those. ALOT. And now my own son wants to take the creative memories plunge. I don't think so, it's a matter of principle now.

Day Two

Like I said today was all about the excitement...



The new library. It was opened today, not the real 'grand opening/dedication ceremony' but open nonetheless. The landscaping hasn't been completed and the computers are still on order but there are books and more books. And the book club choice was on the shelf, saving me ten bucks. Yee-haw.







New library carpeting + powdered munchkins + girlie = mess. oops.

See I told you this was exciting.











And look, new shoes for the girlie. We're on the look out for brown mary janes too. Light brown mary janes if you must know. The boy also has new sneakers but they are kind of dull and this post is a thrill a minute and I don't want to slow the pace down.






I'm debating on a destination for tomorrow...I'm torn between a zoo with a raptor show and a mini-golf money sucking extravaganza. Or maybe Boston. Hmmm.

What I did during Summer Vacation

Day One:
Okay, so I only work two days a week. Still, this week that I took off is shaping up just fine.
We were going to go camping on the Cape for the week but I've said "enough" to the camping and am instead adventuring around with the kids.

Today took us to Newport, Rhode Island. Seriously, I can't get enough of this area. Sadly about one gazillion vacationers feel the same way and they clog the streets. Much like I do, so I guess I'll shut up about that. I've only been to Newport once or twice in the past five years and I didn't know where any of the beaches were so today we went exploring. We stopped at the first beach we saw conveniently known as First Beach.

The kids boogie boarded until they were chafed. And covered in this nasty ass seaweed known as Mermaid's Hair. It's red. And did I mention nasty? The waves weren't very big but my kids are used to beaches with ripples so it was like a ...well, I'd use the word tsunami but I'm not sure if it's okay to use that word lightly anymore, what with this being an annoyingly PC world and all. ehem. It was good fun. Plus now we have alot of empty smelly crab shells for their 'collections'.





After First Beach we drove up Ocean Drive past all of the mansions to this little tiny beach with no name. Maybe it has a name and we missed it but there's only room for like 10 cars and it's FREE (a rare thing indeed here in New England) and it's a sea glass haven at low tide. We picked and poked through the rocks for the glass and then we picked and poked at hermit crabs and periwinkles and such in the tide pools on the rocks. The kids played hide and go seek at Breton Point State Park, right next door and I layed (laid? whatever.) on the grass to watch the kites.



We heard that Second Beach is a much better beach than First so we decided that we'd be remiss not to at least find it for next time. And once we found it? More boogie boarding. And less red, crappy seaweed. We stayed until sunset. In keeping with the Newport theme we stopped here for dinner, which my son deemed "much better than Friendly's". The highest praise from an eight year old. We are sandy and salty and my kids are sleeping with Mermaid's hair mixed in with theirs.




Tomorrow? The Brand Spanking New Library in town opens and we'll be there for the ribbon cutting. You can almost taste the excitement can't you?

My girlie

Self Portraits.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I have seen Jude Law naked. Sadly, it's not all I hoped it would be. That and it was through a telephoto lens.

Really people, he's bareassed so be prepared.

The Evening's Entertainment

I'm forgoing all things this evening so that I can watch Battle of the Network Reality Stars.

Comments:

Charla from the Amazing Race is an ass kicker.

Jonathan from the Amazing Race did not learn ONE THING from having his ultra abrasive personality broadcast over national television. Tone it down bone head.

I would be afraid of Coral from the Real World.

Rachel from the Swan looks like a plastic surgery nightmare.

Holy crap: The first challenge: The Obstacle Course is every bit as cheesy as it was twenty years ago. Look at that Tarzan Swing...I love it.

*Update: This show is kind of a freak fest. I don't love it as much as I did fifteen minutes ago.

How badly do I want this? Pretty bad but not enough to give up my ticket to this. Oh, you should all be able to hear my kids crying when they find out that their mom gets to see Green Day that night and they will have to, instead, go to bed.

I've started Christmas shopping. Go ahead and hate. I don't finish up early though it's just a long drawn out process perfect for my procrastinating self. I haven't bought one iota of back to school crap. I promised them both new sneakers - I still have 20 days to make good.

I have a tentatively scheduled 36 hours of solitude approaching. Please, all of you send your psychic wishes for my mom to travel to Maine this weekend so that she might watch my kids for a few hours while my husband runs some equipment up there for my parents. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My girlie has hit a rough patch behavior wise, leaving me mentally exhausted for the past few weeks. She screamed and cried for an hour on the ride home from Vermont because I wouldn't let her have a pen in the back seat. An hour. She's almost five and in her worst moments these past few weeks she's been acting as if she's two and a half. She doesn't have a ton of these worst moments, but enough to take a toll on me and make me reevaluate my battle plan er, parenting strategy. Again.

So we drove and drove and then we drove some more. Let's just say it was remote. Not hard to find but definitely in the boonies. The trip was perfectly uneventful. The boy was fishing within minutes of arrival. Our site was perfectly located, it may well be the only time in my life that I actually have lakefront property.








Vermont makes for some beautiful traveling. Like Maine there's alot of distance between where you are and where you need or want to go. 10 miles for milk? What choice do you have? Somehow, I've become fairly used to it in Maine but it really left me feeling exhausted this past weekend.










Having no pets of our own left us with an empty feeling...oh, wait...was that relief? Maybe on my part but the kids adopted this guy. We spent $8.00 on peanuts. He should be set for awhile.









The view our campsite from the beach. We're to the right of the boats (those would be the red and yellow specks). If you squint you can see our tent.









And while the weather in Vermont was very nice, except for an occasional light drizzle we were just South of Boston when we were treated to a deluge. Seriously. Traffic slowed to a crawl and there was two feet of water on the ground in some places. All within minutes. Lightening and Thunder. All very cool.







See how the guardrail is only 8 inches high or so? That's because the bottom two feet and the median and passing lane are totally underwater. The other side seemed to luck out on this portion of the expressway. This much rain and what seemed to be endless grey clouds. We live about 30 minutes south of here and while it got a little overcast at one point we never got a drop of rain from this.


Okay, on to the quiz. The crowning of the winner that all of you have been waiting for.

*trumpets blaring*

It's Jennifer! She was the first to answer. She eeked out her victory by mere minutes - and because she didn't tell me how long to minus for her trip to the train station. And Kate, she got that tricky bonus question...smarty pants. Thanks to everyone that played. I made you all read those lonely little archived posts. They're very thankful.

Oh, and in trying to prevent trickery I messed with the commenting code in my template. I've gone and screwed it up. The comments for this post are actually above the header of the post below this. Dammit.

The Quiz to End all Quizzes or What to Read While Jenny's Gone Camping. Again.

Okay, so we've gone to Vermont for four days and you're all wondering..."What on earth will I do without Jenny?'' Well sharpen your pencils folks and grab a drink because you've just been selected to participate in the Blog Quiz from Hell. Not really, but sounds daunting, eh?

The answers are in my past posts. So you've got to read, read, read. Or scan quickly but I'll never know, it's not like I'll be checking my stat counter to see how long it took you guys or anything. ehem.

Here we go...

1. Total Cost of the Camping Trip from June 2004?

2. What did I make my daughter dig out of the toilet last November?

3. In July 2004 I listed Four Movies that will I never see. What are they?

4. What taxidermied critter was waiting for me in my office in March?

5. What happened when I tried to do an Audioblogger post last September?

6. Last February who did I say had the greatest smile in pro sports?

7. Which Survivor was I crushing on in April?

8. What did my son carve on his Halloween pumpkin last year?

9. Where did we travel to for Mother's Day 2005?

10. What did I get coming home from a book club meeting last July?

11. What did my husband not want my help with just before Christmas last year?

12. Which 'one of my favorite gizmos' did I have on the counter to prepare for last January's blizzard? Bonus: How much snow did my ruler say accumulated?

13. What kind of shots did I drink at my brother in law's wedding in September?

14. Who signed my hat after the SuperBowl? Bonus: What's his NAME?

15. Name three things that were in my purse last March.

16. Sometime around Labor Day 2004 I found out what Famous Leader I was most like. Who?

17. In April I said that I thought someone could be my 'fantasy grandpa'...who?

18. What two animals ate my food when I took my kids camping last August?

19. In May 2005 I discovered a most excellent cleaning product - what was it?

20. How many stars did this blog get rated on Blog Explosion last October?


Bonus Math Question for Kate: My two dogs left the house at 12:30 to run wild through the streets. They travelled 1.75 miles and ate 14 cheeseburgers, 12 orders of popcorn and 3 snowcones. How many dogs do I have?

Well. There you have it. The Jenny's Journal Quiz. You can email me your answers at littlewonder20002000@yahoo.com. I'll post the winner sometime Sunday night.

There will be prizes people. Huge valuable prizes. The first one with all of the correct answers wins and wins BIG.

I'm lying. Small, inexpensive prizes, but prizes nonetheless.

Thanks for playing guys, really.

In my world Wednesday = Friday ....phew.

Work rant: There was a little workplace venting going on earlier tonight...but theventing has been done and it's been erased. I have no interest in ever having this blog become part of some wacky workplace politics.

The dogs are being kenneled tomorrow for the first time. It's going to be ugly. Baxter tends to bark when he's locked up, away from people and comfy furniture. He tends to bark loudly and constantly. I'm worried about him.

And tomorrow, tomorrow people is the debut of my quiz. I suppose email will be the easiest way for me to determine the winner. Because quite frankly I'm expecting an onslaught of visitors to participate. Really, all nine readers and then maybe a 'Next Blog' blogger or two. How will I ever keep track? Actually email will work out better so I won't have to be embarrassed about the total LACK of participants. C'mon ..... invite your friends...

We are headed to the Green Mountain State this weekend. To CAMP.

Did I say I liked camping? Things change. That's not true, I enjoy camping, it's the packing I am hating.

Next year we were supposed to take a vacation. A real vacation, with planes and rental cars and such. I think it's been cancelled due to lack of funds so I will placate myself with a rental house within driving distance. We have good destinations here in the Northeast...Cape Cod, Maine, New York, etc... but I wanted airports and a Hertz counter. *sigh* Must. Swear. Off. Target.

I am planning a quiz for the end of the week. To test my lovely readers...all eight of you. To keep you occupied while I am otherwise occupied.

Now that I am out of the proverbial closet I may treat myself to a Flickr account. oooh the extravagance. Wasn't I just complaining about a lack of money not two paragraphs ago? Hmmm.

Oh, and Tash wants a cookout...if she gets her fanny with smoochable baby in tow over to these United States....she can name the date and the time...it's a done deal. The guest house is all yours Tash.

He leaves for training tomorrow and then leaves for Iraq in January. He's quite possibly one of the sweetest guys on the planet. And I'm not exaggerating. We really, really love him. Stay safe, Josh. 

I'm out.

Well, there's a few of you who might know this but for the multitudes that don't this blog has always been secret. My secret. Kept for myself. My husband knew nothing of the posts I've typed or the sites I read. Except for an occasional fact or story, like I hear Milwaukee has the BEST frozen custard or I bet Niagra Falls is beautiful, huh? - I never outed myself.

I mean what if he wanted to read it? And okay, here's another tidbit, I don't like sharing. And this was mine. M.I.N.E. mine.

I recently received an offer or two that I found myself not wanting to refuse. It meant coming clean with the whole blogging/posting/commenting thing. And so I did. After thirteen months of this craziness I just said "Oh, hey I started a website". (I HATE the word blog, never know how to replace it and feel like "my site" is all pretentious for this thing. I mean, Dooce has a site. Mine is clearly a blog. And he wouldn't know what a blog was if it bit him in the ass, but I digress) He say's when'd you start that? I say, because, thirteen months sounds WAY long - awhile ago. He asks what it is, I tell him it's kind of like a journal and people can comment on it and.. then the kicker, said with not a small amount of sarcasm "People actually read it??". I'll chalk it up to not even knowing the slightest thing about the internet and NOT about the quality of my posts...especially when they're weird internet related dreams.

I show him the page, he's only mildly interested. More upset about the pic of the house - as if I'd make sure you all saw the address that is actually on my house courtesy of the cutest LL Bean sign...anyway....

I don't know if he'll ever really GET it or the whole idea of what can come of it. Whether it's a friendship or a recipe or a post that makes me laugh or cry or worry. Whatever it is I'm glad it's not a secret anymore.

Dream the Impossible Dream

So Blackbird goes away on vacation. And she lives next door. Except it's not next door to this house but the house I grew up in. And it's not the house that used to be there in real life, it's different. And on a hill. She leaves her doors unlocked while she's gone. She always does. How do I know? She blogs all about it. Funny though, even as she's living next door I only know her from her site and have never met her.

Anyway, I get yelled at for watering her flowers by this person and this girl as they pull up in a big convertible, the kind you see in Nelly videos, until I give them the secret password. "SAY LA VEE". Oh, they say...let's go inside and check out her kitchen. So we're in the kitchen and really enjoying it I might add. And then the phone rings it's my husband is telling me to come home because I have a phone call. Kate's on the phone when I get there and all I can remember is laughing (and her AHAHAHA laugh but out loud) .

And then I get woken up by the lovely sound of two children calling for breakfast. Interesting eh? No. Well, I never said it would be. I just said I would blog about it and made no promises about the quality of my post.

Last night I while looking for some frozen peas I happened upon something in the freezer. Something that generally doesn't belong there. The cordless phone.

I feel busier this summer than ever. It's taking a conshus (it's called phonics people and that's how they're teaching my kids to spell) effort on my part to slow things down. As of yet we haven't been bike riding, blueberry picking or to the beach. Things we do regularly every summer.

Pats training camp was sweltering hot. The kids didn't want to leave on the off chance that Mr. Tom Brady might sign something ANYTHING of theirs.
He signed nothing of ours - instead we were given #61 Stephen Neil (who? who cares - he was big, huge even, and the kids loved it) for autographs. But Tom Brady passed right by us and my kids, for just a moment, were breathing the same air and that was enough. At least for the boy. He's enamored.

I had the strangest dream last night. And there were guest appearances...by you guys. Welcome to my sleep, was the bed comfy? sorry if I kicked you. I'm off to the beach but will be back to rehash the dream later...

Quick - I Need Help

Okay internet, I have to write a miniature email basically telling someone that at this time I can't accept the job they've offered me. Which I've done, except for the last sentence.

I need to throw in a line about how "maybe you could keep me in mind and call me if something else becomes available".

And I need to send this email out by early tomorrow morning.

Everything I type comes out sounding totally idiotic and desperate. Wah. I'm begging you guys.