April 2-11, 2012

Well it was a lovely week off. I recharged, got re-inspired, and relaxed. A few of the highlights of the trip include a walk through Old San Juan an Friday. I went with my niece on this annual pilgrimage to tour and pray at seven churches in the old city. Although I am not much of a "go to church" kinda gal, to see the architecture was amazing. So many are in the process of being restored. As i looked around, K prayed in each church, as did thousands of other people. There were even lines to get in all of them! I have to say that the singing, the prayers read out loud, and the music brought me to tears a few times. The faith and love was overwhelming. And then to think that this was going on all over the island, in most towns and cities, people were walking or driving from cathedral to cathedral to pray. It was an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget.

I continued my running plan and finished both week 4 and the week 4 supplemental of the 5k101 running plan. I started week 5, but about halfway through my first interval I fell and rid some damage to the skin on my elbow, hand and knee. So I guess it will be a few more days before I can run again. It isn't so much the knee, that is fine, but my elbow is pretty sore so just sweating burns like crazy.

So here I am, catching up on orders, paperwork, and making some soap. I am finishing up on getting my social networking sites all working and linked together. That is a chore! I have a ton of emails to reply to and phone messages to return. Just going to be a busy day.

But show season is just around the corner, so I have go to keep going :)

Links of the Week

This week links for the week are a pretty diverse lot….

Let’s start with Farecast. This is a web sit that can help you predict airfare changes. I like to use it in conjunction with either Expedia or my airlines website. For me, often I know that I have a block of days that I want to travel, and I typically want to get my ticket as early as possible, but this helps me decide if I should wait a bit or not. A great example is that if I wanted to go and visit J the first week in August, it predicts an 80% the fare will rise, so I should buy now… I think that is great to know and it has worked for me so far…

Next is The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Now this is not for those on a diet, and something makes me think that this site will soon become a best selling cookbook, and maybe even a show on Food network, however, this gal can cook! And I’m not taking a Rachel Ray, jazzed up, 30 minute rendition of an old family favorite, I mean down home, takes a long time, cooked mostly from scratch, yummy recipes. I love the detailed pictures that are well shot and actually informative.

Third on this list is Not For Children Books. I have obsession- children’s books, I collect them from just about all of our travels (even travels to the local bookstore) and signed books are a priority (by author or illustrator). But I have no kids, so I have a growing collection of books that look lie children’s books and sound like children’s books, but are books that I wouldn’t read to a child. And believe me, after just a few trips into this web site, the baby’s are gonna be all mine one day!
And for one I just found this morning and am still exploring... try the Very Short List. This is a daily email (or just check the web site daily) about books, movies, music, videos, and generally just some culturally entertaining things. I have a feeling that some of their daily finds will end up on this list soon enough

Jan 8-14 2007 Week 2

C was gone all week. He was traveling in Great Britain and the Netherlands for work, one week in each place. I thought about going with him one of the weeks but I wanted to have K for all the time I could before she went back to school, and I also wanted to go and visit J while he was gone so we could minimize our time apart in Jan.

Monday-Wednesday K and I got lots of work done. Soap made and lip glosses started. I also got lots of knitting done. The big thing I learned this week was not to watch Six Feet Under when your most beloved person on the planet is traveling and communication with him is spotty. What a great show, but how depressing. I think it was better when you only got to see an episode at a time when it was on TV because being able to watch 3 or more in a row can defiantly affect a person’s frame of mind.

Thrusday: K and I went to Ikea and picked up a few things I needed and a few things for her dorm room as well. We also stopped at Michaels to look at the yarn and one other store to see if they had any yarn left (they were phasing it out to have more room for beads). In the afternoon I had a hair appointment. I really like having my hair short, and that it can actually be put into a nice style, but the cost and time to keep it up at the salon is such a pain. I am probably one of the only people who really doesn’t enjoy having my hair cut.

Friday I went to lunch at R’s place. R and I met at a craft show a few years ago and I had her make a bracelet for K, so I had her make one for M as well. So I went to pick it up and spend some time with her and the kids. It is just so nice to be able to get out of the house and spend some time with adults and with women. As a kid and young adult I never really had many friendships with women, but in the last few years I have really had the opportunity to meet and bond with some superb ladies. I just need to take some time and spend more time with them because it is good for me to get out, to get a new perspective, and to get a chance to socialize.

Saturday: A day to get some things done and to get packed for my trip to J’s. I went to dinner with B & M at Paprika’s- and absolutely awesome Hungarian restaurant. I had this great dinner that pretty much is roasted pork in a garlic sauce served over French Fries. It was so good I find myself craving it now….and dessert…I can’t spell it but they are these crepe things that have all sorts of stuff in them, I had mine finned with walnuts.. YUM!

Sunday: The day itself started well, but the night was he**. I laid down early because I needed to be up around 2 am in order to be able to catch my fight to J’s. Around 8pm I started not feeling well, and by 10 I was having an intimate relationship with my bathroom. I tried sleeping in between “incidents” and poured myself into a shower around 3 am and somehow got myself to the airport and suffered through the flight to Detroit. This was the sickest that I have ever been that hasn’t been alcohol induced. It was so bad that about midnight I almost called B to come sit with me because I had almost passed out. But I was set on getting on that plane and I knew that she wouldn’t let me go, so I suffered alone…