Last 2006 post

Happy new year - almost! All I wanted for New Year's was a clean basement and Steven spent most of yesterday cleaning out all the crap we've accumulated in there over the past year. Finally there is space to move and to fill up again with more stuff... Tonight is the big new year's get together at the Stgermains - its grown this year to include more neighbors. Steven and I are off to the market to prepare. He wants to try out the new deyhydrater and make beef jerky. Got to run...

New Year's Resolutions

So my resolutions from last year weren't completely met - I guess I will have to make them again this year! They were mostly about eating healthier and exercising more - I think I've done better at it but still have a ways to go. I've seen these people on the morning talk shows who have lost half their body weight and wonder how they do it - but I know - they exercise and eat right! So - for 2007 - I'm going to re-resolved all that I resolved for 2006 and maybe by 2008 I'll be at least part way along my 2006 list!

A Lynch Family Christmas

We got back pretty early yesterday from our Christmas with the Lynches in Methuen. So early in fact that we were able to cook a turkey dinner here - with a turkey breast of course. And we finished up our last few presents. A new tradition has been started in the St. Germain house - forget a few of your wife's presents when you leave for Christmas so you make sure she wants to return... I saved some of Stevens to open here as well but they weren't as fun as mine. He went to his favorite jewlery place again where they have him on file and picked out a pretty white and yellow gold bracelet - very nice. Christmas in Methuen was just about the same as ever - even without the tree. My parents are off today to San Francisco for a weddding this coming weekend and so they didn't want the hassle of a tree. Cross your fingers that there is no earthquake while they are there like has been reported - Mom did say that if the "big one" gets them Colleen is to get both houses and I get the angels...

Here are some outtakes from our Christmas present exchange yesterday - poor Ken - he didn't know what he was getting himself in for when he agreed to take part in the funny present exchange...


Colleen's Air-Zooka that Steven picked out...

Ken was really eyeing the Air-Zooka thinking OOO - maybe she'll let me play with it...

Steven had to break out the tools to put the thing together...

Things only got better when Ken opened his gift - Humphrey the Humping Dog... Just what he always wanted. Mom was having fun with her presents - the dancing turtle and the food scale... guess which one was the gag gift and which was from Dad - one hint- the gag gift dances The Big Guy celebrating his 60th with 60 scratch tickets - we left him there in Methuen only having scratched 6 or 7 - I think he probably stayed up all night before they left for the airport frantically scratching to see if he won...

Getting ready to go to MA tonight...

So all the shopping is done, my wrapping is done (my husband asked last night if he could wrap presents at my mom's), and the Engligh Toffee is being handed out at the tennis club as I type. Its going to be totally quiet around the office today. Oh well! Maybe I can get home early and finish packing. I haven't had to go back to gift wrap at the mall this week, thank goodness! In honor of Christmas at the Lynches - here are some memories from last year...

Colleen's new friend - Dad can't contain his excitment... will Santa make another appearence this year? Probably not - he got returned the day after Christmas last year...This was supposed to be Mom and Dad's Christmas picture for their cards this year, I got a plain card so maybe I missed the picture...
Probably the only half - way normal picture taken last year. Its up to you to guess which half of the picture is normal!Steven sleeping on the couch - not any different than any other day of the year except he is surrounded by empty boxes and old wapping paper after a hard day opening presents.

Gift wrap gone crazy!

Finally - done with gift wrap. Yesterday I did the 11 to 2 shift, which ended up being until 4:15 for me! In the morning there were these two women scheduled with me who had the personalities of wood. One woman was so critical right off the bat - plus they were late. I was already wrapping presents when they got there and she didn't like how I was doing it. I gave them the lay of the land and I guess they have done this for 7 years (the volunteer center has really only been doing it 3 years) and didn't appreciate that I was brand new and "telling them what to do." But, because I am a board member I was the person responsible that morning. Whatever. I even said nicely, "You don't have to worry about the money, I'll collect it. It's five dollars a package and if a person has a ton of packages I will work out a deal with them." The critical woman said five dollars is a lot, are people really going to pay that. I said they had been and that was what we were asking. GEEZ. Well at least they were good wrappers. At 2 PM my next volunteers arrived, Vin and his wife, he was 84 and she was 81 and recovering from a stroke. The non-personality ladies left right on cue and I was alone with the elderly couple while a line of people started to get gifts wrapped. This is where it gets interesting.

There was this one woman who was circling our table talking on her cell phone and carrying an Amazon box with stuff in it. I just knew she was heading for our table. Anyway - she comes over - her name is Donna by the way - and starts to pull stuff out of her box. Vin is standing there just taking her things. I went over to work out a deal with her, she already had about 6 things on our table and had more in the box. All together in her box there were about 12 things. At five dollars a package that would be $60. A couple were small and could be combined. She then said she had 10 more things in the car. I told her that we could do it all for $80- what a deal that would have been more than $100! She said no, and I said what would she think was appropriate since it was a donation to a non-profit. She said she would pay $40. I said we could do it for $60 and depending on how many more things she brought in from the car we would have to renegotiate. Fine. We wrap the stuff from the first box and then she comes back in with three bags worth of stuff!! In the meantime, Patti from the Volunteer Center arrived and started wrapping as well. The line was unbelievable! People kept dropping off stuff and I was wrapping things left and right. Oh - and the elderly woman helping started farting which really didn't help the situation.

More and more people are coming to the table and we have started to run really low on boxes. Patti goes down the mall and in a few minutes comes back with two guys from Wilson Leather carrying two huge boxes of boxes! Wow! Just what we needed. Oh - and Donna is still trying to sort out her there bags of stuff. Vin and his wife are wrapping things for her as I have to start in on some packages that were left. One was a huge bedding set - yea - try to get the wrapping paper to stay flat on that one. Anyway Donna starts to complain that its taking a while, and it has. She had been there since about 2 PM and its now 3:30. I go over to "renegotiate" with her and explain that she is not the only person getting gifts wrapped, and although she has a lot, we can't just stop what we are doing. I then say that she had many more gifts then we originally bargined for and that it would be appropriate for her to make more of a donation to the Volunteer Center. She sort of brushed me off. I said, we have used up whole rolls of paper for your gifts and this is not a free service, that we are volunteers doing a fundraiser and that it would be nice if she could give at least $10 more. She says, "I already have gift wrap at home I bought and don't have the time to do it but I'm not paying any more." I explained that I was sorry she felt that way, but we were taking our time with her gifts and if she couldn't make more of a donation to cover what we had done for her we couldn't continue to wrap her gifts. I walked away and left her with her wrapped presents and a couple unwrapped things to go help someone else. Well - then she says she will go get boxes and be back. By this time it was about 4:15 and I really had to get back to work. So I said my good byes to Patti, Vin and his wife (still can't remember her name) and came back to the office for a few hours.

This morning Patti emailed me - we made over $1000 yesterday and apparently Donna came back... She said she would tell me the story when she saw me... Must be a good one!

Gift wrapping

The Volunteer Center is in charge of the gift wrapping at the mall over the holiday season. As a board member, I was supposed to sign up for four three hour shifts. Back in October the woman running it started signing us all up and it got messed up then. I was willing to do some shifts that she said were filled and then in November when the sign up sheet when around again the original shifts I wanted were empty - go figure! Anyway - I did my first two shifts last Sunday. Fine. Then this week at our meeting they needed more help yesterday. I said fine, I can do another shift, I'll do 2-5. I got there early, about 1:30 and the person I was relieving left right at two. The person who was relieving me had something come up, and so I ended up doing 1:30 to 7 ish. AND I have to get there at 4 this afternoon and stay until 8 and do one more shift tomorrow from 11-2. I think I'm doing more than my fair share and it was asked of me if I could do more later in the week! GEEZ! Ask some people who haven't done it at all. So, in reality I have or will do 6 shifts plus a little more here and there. I told them I can't do any more. I feel bad, but I have to finish my shopping and make more candy this week.

Snowmen

A couple of days ago I came home to find a package on the front steps. Inside were these:

Carrie, Michaels' wife, and I were talking at Thanksgiving about holiday decorations. I mentioned that snowmen were my theme and she said she had some she'd send along. I had totally forgotten about the conversation and didn't know what might be in the box - what a nice surprise! The snowmen have migrated their way around the house...

Pilates and tennis

I'm back into my routine. Went to my last pilates class last night. There were only three of us so it was like a private lesson with the instructor. There were a few new moves that I learned as well that I have to practice until the classes start up again in Feb. I haven't signed up for it yet, but the instructor said I could probably take the intermediate level class. Then this morning I played tennis. I haven't played in a while - well last week I played but that was doubles and I didn't run as much. The woman I played this morning runs me all over the court. So things are back to normal around here after those few crazy weeks in November. I don't have to travel anywhere until Jan. And then in Feb I have two trips.

Ian Ingersoll

Steven is off to meet his favorite woodworker today - Ian Ingersoll. Our friend Paul had stopped in to his showroom in West Cornwall CT a few weeks ago and said a friend of his does woodworking. Steven called last week and the man said for him to come up and bring some pictures and a piece he's done. So he's off right now to go up there. Its near where he goes fishing so he knows the area well! I'd been saying all week to put his pictures in a little photo album. He took my advice last night and we improvised by taking an album that had some pictures and took them out and he arranged his in it. Good thing we have the printer that prints pictures! Our neighbors Peter and Debbi were over and they are architects. Debbi said that the photos looked good and because he had them in order from oldest project to newest she said she could sort of tell. I have to go gift wrap at the mall today - oh joy! I'll be there from 11 to 5 - long day!

Holiday time

I feel a little more in the holiday spirit this week. Its tough to get going and get into it after being away. We are going to get the tree this weekend. Once that gets put up it will seem more like Christmas. I've got a little shopping done - but still have some to do. Steven seems like he has done quite a bit of shopping. The other funny thing about the holidays is that the radio stations begin playing carols right after Thanksgiving. That is a little bit much - but I know that when I feel like getting in the holiday spirit I can turn on this one station and listen for a bit. Tomorrow I have to gift wrap at the mall for the Volunteer Center from 11 - 5. Not quite sure exactly what my duties are, where I need to report, or who else is going to help, but I'll get there anyway and see what happens.

Back to reality - finally!

Hi everyone- so I'm finally back to a somewhat normal day. What a few weeks we have had! Here is a brief recap - after returning from North Carolina the Sunday after Thanksgiving - we had expected to be back Saturday but I took us on a detor of the greater Lynchburg VA area - I had to leave again on Wednesday for New Orleans for my professional conference. It was a long day. My luggage was "delayed" and I ended up not getting it until about midnight. But lots of people offered pjs and contact lens cases in case I needed them. This conference has you going from first thing in the morning to late into the evening. I was good though and didn't go out on Bourbon Street as much as others! The highlights of the trip - eating at Emrils - great food - service was slow - and meeting the Mayor!

The Mayor story goes like this - on Saturday afternoon I was feeling like I hadn't really seen New Orleans. I went for a walk to see some more sights and walked down to Cafe Du Monde again for coffee and beinets (sorry for the spelling!). As I wsa getting my order, this motorcade and police motorcyles pull up outside on the street with the lights and sirens blaring. The guy gets out and is moving up the sidewalk and people start to take his picture. It turns out it is the Mayor Ray Nagen. I was standing there by the door and as he went to go in he stops so I put my hand out and shake his hand and tell him that I am in town visiting and that his city has been very welcoming. He said thank you - that is exactly what New Orleans needs at this time. Too cool! Of course I was excited and realized that I had just has my New Orleans experience.

New Orleans means food

So New Orleans is fun - we have eaten almost everywhere that you see on the food network. Tonight was our three and a half hour dinner at Emeril's - it was great but very very slow! Today we also went to Cafe Du Monde and had beneits and cafe au lai. It was great - basically fried dough with powdered sugar. My favorite! Tomorrow we are going to try Mother's for lunch - can't wait! Home on sunday - and its cold here too today - about 40 - yikes!