Last night, Jess, Bill and I go to Juanita High School and walk into the entry of the gym. It costs $6 to get in unless you are 65 or older, in which case you get in for free. I had the money, so I went first. The lady at the payment table asked me if I were a senior citizen. I said no. She asked how old I was. I said 62. She said “that’s close enough†and told her co-worker to charge for two adults. I piped up and said “three!†She shouted, “No, just two!†So I got in free and was NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT!!!!!!
I also have not had much time to write in even though I intended to many times. Snow is becoming a constant in our lives here in Philadelphia. It seems like every other day there is something snow-related happening. It is interfering with people's ability to get to work, be on time, etc... Sid and I have the blessings of being able to walk to work. On the other hand we don't get to ever use the excuse of snow as a reason not to show up or to get to work on time. What fun is that. I mean really what good is the snow if it can't be the ultimate excuse for not doing what you are supposed to do. Our car is still buried in the snow and I don't know when we will be moving it. It needs to be cleaned and shoveled out. I will volunteer Sid for that job, do you think he might be interested?
Thanks KC for the recognition of the wonderful hand2paw program. And yes Sid will be "judged" on whether he volunteers for the program. I will have to convince him. The program is actually picking up lots of good PR at Penn and they are talking about it going national. Although there are probably identical programs around the country, but they are just not publicized.
The Parsons have moved to their new house. Kay, thanks for asking about the move and I think it went okay, or should I say as well as can be expected for a family that has as much "stuff" as they do and lived in a 6000 square feet house. My sister was willing to just get a dumpster and throw out 85% of what they own. But she wasn't allowed to do that. Seems that they just can't seem to clear out the old house. There is lots of stuff that remained and needs to be cleared. It is still a work in progress. I think there have been several trips to the old house to clean it out. It seems rather endless. They sure are funny and my sister and I get a lot of laughs about how crazy that family is. But I wouln't have it any other way. Alex and Nina really like the new school. They are amazed at how nice everyone has been. It looks like other kids really like them and I am sure they are enjoying that. Can you believe that they actually told their parents not to pack ANY junk food for lunch because all the kids in teh school eat healthy food. Not that my sister really fed them much junk food, but I guess they are now living by an even higher standard of healthy food. Of course, George and Rossana have no complaints about that. But the morale of the Parsons moving story is " Don't ever move." My sister said it is an absolute nightmare. It really seems like it gets harder as you accumulate more stuff. I know that this family is very experienced in moving and probably quite good at it. So feel free to laugh at us Mancinis' who can't seem to move everything out of a house in one giant swoop.
Little dog Storm is adjusting. He was very confused the first few days and seemed quite nervous - poor little guy. He is okay now and I think he is enjoying all the walks among the pretty trees that are in the neighborhood. I guess he is just happy to have all his family around him. What more could he ask for? By the way, the current house is in a much more scenic location now. Of course there is no comparison to the scenery that all of you are living in but for us Philadelphians, their location looks pretty good.
KC, I am sorry to hear that your dog has the heart issue, is the racing career over or is there some way to continue. I am sure that was really disappointing for you, and I know you are sad for him.
I hope you are all having a nice winter season. What is going on in the NW with rain, are you getting lots of it?
That would be pretty tough to have constant rain, although I think I could adjust if it were not heavy rains.
I do find rain refreshing, I just don't like downpours like we have here on the East Coast.
OK -- I know why I haven't posted anything recently. It's because things are so boring with endless days of sunshine punctuated with occasions of frigid temperatures. Besides my one brilliant racer being diagnosed with congestive heart failure at the age of 5 (bummer to the max), all else seems to be going OK. Tory will be visiting soon--that will be fun. What's happening with you all? Buried in snow? Work? Sending all love from the heartland (fly over country as they say).
Wow Sandra - what a great program. Animals do folks so much good for so many. It's such a wonderful partnership between people and animals--and I can absolutely see how engagement between Philly's youth and the homeless critters makes such sense. There's a woman in Arizona with borzoi who has started a program to assist veterans with post traumatic stress syndrome (http://www.lundr.com/). We have convicts at our main state prison involved with training the wild mustangs that are rounded up by the government, also aimed at making them more adoptable. Playing with my hounds keeps me off the street too! Do you think sending my little brother to help out with the critters may help you decide to keep him? I don't know. He's a pretty tough cookie.
Among the many wonderful things we do, here is a really neat program from one of the interns at Vet. I think you will find the video inspiring. I am sending Sid out to the program immediately to help out
I am actually thinking about joining the cause myself and helping. Always great to see the animal-human bond in action.
Human Animal Bond/Animal Assisted Therapy Independent Study Class, Rachel Cohen presented her program called hand2paw which brings homeless kids from Covenant House into shelters to work with shelter dogs - it is a really impressive program -
Will it ever stop raining. The Blakneys took us out to dinner for an early birthday for Bill and I and then to Judi's for the cake pictured on the blog. We had a nice time.
My poor, poor bike is sitting neglected on my front porch until the rain stops and it appears that may never happen. Dee and Bill are headed back to MI for a birthday get together with their crew.
Took the dogs for a walk up the Chip Ross trail between rain storms and when we got home, I carried a dog under each arm directly into the bathroom to do mud removal. I also was forced to change clothes. That trail is one big mud pit and I probably won't do that trail again until it drys out. Luis is such a big baby that he hates to get his little paws wet and sometimes hopes alone on 3 legs if he gets a paw particularly dirty and when we wade through water, Ramone and I always have to wait until he picks his way carefully through the water. Big baby. However, they are now shampooed and clean until our next outing.
Hope those of you who got snow this year are surviving. My crew has all gone home and Theresa's ship heads back out in a few days for a short trip. Tiff is having company withdrawal. They all enjoyed the farm and now understand why Tiff loves it so much. Duncan was really hoping to bring down a cougar or coyote with the machete but as luck would have it, none of them surfaced. We could already see the headlines "California Boy Killed By Cougar."
Scary that that limb came off in the wind. I worry a bit about the entire tree. Scheesh. The birthday party looks fun. Sorry we missed all the good eating. Sending love to all--and Bill turns another year older in a few hours. Hang tight Bill!!! Did you notice that the Zodiac shifted? Did any of you retain their old astrological sign? I lost mine, Tom kept his, the twins became Capricorns.
It is wet, the bridge still stands, and a limb has broken off one of the big redwood trees:
We celebrated Kay and Bill's upcoming birthdays with dinner out and cake at Judi's afterwards.
The limb is broken where it joins with the trunk. Luckily, nothing was in the way. We will need to get it taken out, but there doesn't appear to be any reason to do it immediately.
I assume Buster was the last remaining old cat? I am very sorry to hear he is gone.
Well my crew arrived at the farm yesterday and they are having a wonderful time. Maxx was making a lasso to try and capture a cougar and/or any other wild life he could find. He loves the farm so much that Tina will have to throw him in the car to get him to leave. NO LUCK CATCHING A COUGAR OR COYOTE. We are down to 2 hens and a rooster but all the geese are alive and one duck who thinks he is a goose. Tomorrow morning we will be at Judis for breakfast and then head back to Tacoma (it takes 2 cars). At the farm - Tina, Tiff, Theresa, Duncan and his girl friend Kristina, and Maxx. I will head home Friday morning so I can meet up with Dee and Bill this weekend. Theresa heads back out to sea on 1/20 for another 40 days. Tiffany is making everyone get up at 6 a.m. tomorrow so they can do laundry re the sheets and towels and clean up the farm. I bought a mop for the farm because I could not find one and the floor at the farm was pretty muddy. Should be clean by the time they leave.
My neighbor Al (88 years old) was taken by ambulance a few days ago and is now in a Portland hospital. He is doing okay but will probably got to a retirement home somewhere. His girlfriend up the street keeps me posted on his status. Now if his family will just give me a chance to buy his little RV CHEAP. However one of his kids lives across the street from me and I am sure she will want it or maybe Al will give it to his girl friend. I knew I should have made my move earlier.
Sandra sounds like you all are getting hit pretty hard. We had a little snow yesterday as we came into Corvallis but it is all gone and I hope it stays gone until I am through with my road trips to Tacoma.
Diana, believe I can understand the error with the date. You should see the crazy dates I am writing, especially since it is still only January. Yesterday, I requested to have a data report on some employee turnover rates for the one year. They asked me to specify the dates and I wrote
1/1/2010 to 1/10/2010. That was impressive to everyone I am sure.
We are getting ready for another snow storm. I will have to go out and get a shovel to plow out the car. This is really getting to be a regular event.
Got to get back to work. Hope everyone is well. By the way, Diana I loved the way you described what "seattlites" do when they are ripping with excitment. That was really funny.
Sandra, thanks for pointing out the error in the year of Buster's death! I fixed it. I was going to tease you by correcting it and then asking you what you were talking about. I decided that would be too, too mean. We do miss him. He was a stellar cat.
The Seahawks beat New Orleans in what was a very, very exciting game! A true upset, and Seattle fans went nuts! Of course when Seattle fans go nuts it just means they all hop on their bikes and pedal an extra 10 miles.
No snow for us. Just rainy and overcast. We went on a nice long walk yesterday before the game. It was enough exercise to justify a piece of Murray's fabulous cake - but I'll bet his fellow students had already devoured it. Grrrrr......
We are going to Corvallis next Saturday and will return on Monday or Tuesday. We will celebrate Bill and Kay's birthdays while we are there. We will also walk the farm to see where the water pipe markers are. I have no clue.
Wow, poor little Buster. Sid and I are really sorry to hear about him passing away. But he is now in good hands with Bopcha keeping him on the right path. And of course all the Zoiboyz will be making sure he is having lots of fun in heavan.
Diana my only confusion is if he died in 2005, why are you just now telling us ;
Wow, KC those pictures are amazing. The farm looks stunning as always. The pastry looks as if there are about 25 layers, so what yummy filling sits between all those layers? And I think you are mistaken about the caloric makeup of that cake. To me it looks like a "Weight Watchers" advertisement - you know the one about moderation.
We got some more snow here in Philly and traveling was once again inhibited. Yesterday, we were supposed to be going to the Pocono (Mountains area) to help Joe make sausages, but the snow got the better of us. So in the end, Joe had to depend on his other sausage-making experts. Our expertise couldn't be utilized. Well ....Just kidding.
The Parsons are getting ready for their big move next week. The movers are arriving next week and they will be off to the next town over. I think the biggest adjustment will be for Nina and Alex who will be adapting to a new school with a very different social/class structure. It seems to be bringing the two little siblings closer though which is a beautiful thing of course.
I will keep all of your posted on how it all progresses for the Parsons.
Murray sent me a great picture that he took of the farm and another of one of his masterpieces: a 14-layer chocolate and cinnamon cake. He says he had to stand on a ladder to get high enough to cut it. Amazing.
Nice picture of the lower pasture taken by Murray during his visit after the holidays.
I cannot even imagine how many slices of cake one would have to do to make the calories somewhere less than 2000 for each. Ymmy looking or what?
A publisher acquaintance of ours posted this comment yesterday--at just over 70 she's decided to return to publishing her own magazine. I'm not sure if it is original with her but I sure think it's cute. "European men don't have the American touch. They don't understand most of us would rather be an old broad than an old lady. Two entirely different animals. An old lady is someone you help across the street, an old broad is someone you check to see you're wearing your nut cup before you pi$$ her off." Tee hee.
