Things are looking up for our Cat

Ms. Tootie will be happy to know that the house is back on the market. They have a new realtor. Hopefully this one will be more aggressive. Although I would suggest ripping out the gold two inch shag carpet and showing the hardwoods underneath...

Housing Market Effects Lifestyle of One Particular Cat

So as you know The Simmons house is up for sale. Saturday a call comes in to our house with Her caller ID. No of course I don’t answer, that would be foolishness. I am not looking for fight on a nice peaceful Saturday afternoon. She doesn’t leave a message either. A while later I see my cat hanging out across the street in another neighbor’s yard. Humph, why is she calling us, she’s leaving soon, why does she care?

Sunday. On my way to the grocery store I look up Her street. No for sale sign! Did they sell the house? I drive up and take a look. Her mailbox cover is still on her mailbox; their two cars are still in the drive. It looks like they are still there. BUMMER.

So my guess is they took the house off the market. Ugh. I hope I am wrong. I know that their house over in leisure world is ready and waiting for them, why would they take it off the market. I look it up on Realtor.com, it’s not there. It was there yesterday, I looked it up after she called. The real estate market has really come to crawl here and maybe they think they can get more money for their house in the spring. Give me a break, they bought the house for 63,000 in 1972.

Ok I am getting ahead myself, maybe the house is sold and they haven’t moved yet, I can only hope. Anyway, Ms. Tootie is spending her days on the screen porch again until we can figure out what is going on.

Six Flags

Paul works for a large company and one of the advantages of being that big is the ability to rent out a whole theme park for a day. This is really cool. Six Flags was rented out for the day for use of the employees. We took G and rode ALL the rides. Well not all of them, only the ones she was allowed to and wasn't intimidated by. Like the carousel, the little train and her favorite the swings.












One thing about six flags is that they have lots of thrill rides and roller coasters. It's been a really long time since I've ridden any thing like that. Well, for some crazy reason this ride pictured above was calling my name. Take a look at it, you get strapped in and taken up really high and flung all over the place and flipped upside down several times. OK for those of you who don't know I have motion sickness issues. I can't ride a boat or a plane or even the metro without experiencing nausea and disorientation.

I also have developed a fear of heights. I don't think it's going to be problem but I climb up on something and vertigo immediately kicks in. Like the time I went on the the high ropes course at a company outing. The ropes course wasn't even on our agenda but a few of us thought it would be fun to try it so they let us go up. I climbed up about 40 feet in the air, got to the top and Froze. Literally I could not move up, not down, not sideways. The guide had to come up and carry me down. I know, just a LITTLE embarrassing. Just this summer I climbed up on a lifeguard stand at the beach for a picture with Ms. G. This was only 10 feet or so off the ground and when I got up there, again the reaction unexpected, my heart started racing and I got all shaky. Cute picture though. I tell you all this to give you an idea of why I should not ride the coaster pictured above.

Well I also have a theory about fear. Quite simply, it breeds. Give into to fear and then it's acceptable not do certain things, as time goes on more things are added to the list and if you're not careful leaving your own home or other familiar daily surroundings will leave you in a panic. So every once in a while I feel the need to push it a bit. I started getting this feeling inside that I should ride this coaster, and that if I didn't and left the park I would think I had missed out on something and let fear win one.

Since the park is rented out for the day there are no lines anywhere, you can walk up and get right on the ride. Doesn't give you much time to change your mind. So I give Paul my purse and head over to the entrance. I find my spot just as they close the gates so I get to see it in action close up before getting on. Two teenage boys come up to get on and decide not to ride it while I am waiting. What am I crazy, they aren't going to ride it! Anyway it pulls up and I get on. OK now the heart rate is increasing and I wonder, is it too late to get off? What if I have a heart attack? You know I 'm not that young anymore. No fear isn't going to win, I strap in. Wow, as an aside I can feel the adrenaline a bit just as I write this, or maybe it's just my tea kicking in.

Anyway, it's too late they are starting the ride. First they crank you up the highest hill very slowly backwards so you're just hanging there 100 feet of so in the air off your strap. This is really high. Then it stops and you know they are going to let gravity and speed kick in to take you down the hill. You can here other riders letting expletives go in anticipation for the drop. A little a click and BAM you are flying down the hill, the wind is completely knocked out me, I can't breathe, ok automatic breathing is NOT working switch over to manual and concentrate on breathing in deep. Good the air is coming back in. Close the eyes, that would be good. Get control. Ok I get control, I can breathe again so I open my eyes just in time to be flipped upside down up around the outside of the first loop, whoa this is crazy! Its fast, before you know it you are up the hill on the other side stopped. Good news, you made it. Bad news, we are going through the whole sequence again backwards! I hear the click and we go. This time I didn't get the wind knocked out but the loops are even scarier backwards, sixty seconds and we are back at the top on the side we started out on. OK breathe. They slowly take you back down. This is good I need this time to regroup, try to get the heart rate under control. So we pull up to a stop and I try to get my hands to work and undo the straps. I get out and standing up is a challenge, we are all disoriented trying to find our way to exit.

I get off and feel my brains are scrambled and my body is shaking. I find Paul and Gigi. Wow that was crazy, it takes about 15 minutes for me to recover. Was I glad I did it, yes. I feel like this time fear did not win. The adrenaline rush was good, it's not good to be too comfortable and too in control of everything you do, all the time. Would I do it again yesterday, no once is was enough. :)

New York

This week I had the pleasure of a whirlwind trip to NYC. There was a one day conference on Thursday so four of us went up the day before and made the most of the little time we had there. We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria, which was very exciting to stay in landmark hotel, this was also where the conference was.

The night before we went to dinner at Tribecca Grill and then afterwards walked down to Ground Zero.

I had only seen the site of the former World Trade Centers on TV so it was quite impressive to see the site in person.

It's hard to picture the buildings that were once on the site. The more emotional part of the visit was the timeline and photgraphs posted at the entrance of the WTC subway entrance.

The stangest part of the visit was noticing the armed security outside of the WTC subway stop. 5-6 men with huge machine guns. This is not a site I have ever seen on the streets of America, while they are the good guys it's still very unsettleing. My picture was far away, as I was too itimidated to go up and directly take a picture of them.

Parents

Now you may find this hard to believe with all the tons of pictures I post on this blog of Ms. G., but I am not a kid person. Other people's kids get on my last nerve. Of course there are exceptions to this, like the kids who belong to anybody who reads this blog! :) No really I honestly like my friends kids or at least most of them and the kids in our family. With that said I am realizing it's not the kids I so much dislike - it's the parents. Which of course is why I like the kids I know because, I like their parents and we share similar parenting styles, or should I say we actually parent our children.

What the heck has happened to the general parent these days, is it out of fashion to have your kids abide by some sort of set of rules. Is my idea of where to to draw the line tighter than the general public? Dunno.

Case in point. I signed Gigi and I up for Mommy and Me Yoga classes for the next six weeks. I pictured several little girls with their mommys all sitting nicely following the instructor and trying to do yoga poses. How was it really? Well first of all we get there and there is only one other mommy and she has two boys who look to be about 2 1/2 and 4, the age requirement is at least 3, ok Gigi is two weeks shy of that but really close. Fine no other little girls but maybe some will sign up later. We start, it's ok every one is following instruction and doing ok. Gigi is having fun so it's good. A little bit into the class a mommy and her daughter come in. My guess is that the girl is 2ish AND she still has a pacifier glued to her mouth. The instructor is the only one working so she can't stop and see what this mommy has dropped in for so she invites them to join the class, which I thought was a good move on her part. NOT! First, the little girl was not interested in following instruction she just wanted to run around. Second, the little girl's mommy did absolutely nothing about, in no way did she try to control her or get her to participate in the instructions, she just let her run. Third, since she was running around the two little boys started running around too. ugh. Fourth, the boys' mom gave a small effort to get them back under control, but they didn't listen and she quickly gave up.

Ok what is up with this? If it were my child I would have walked her out of the play area and made her sit her on the bench until she was ready to go back in and follow instructions. This isn't just me backseat driving because I was working a plan in my head of what I was going to do if she decided to join in with the others. What is great is that I didn't need to do that because even though the rest of the kids were running around like banshees with their parents permission, my little girl continued to focus on the instructor and we did our poses. She is the best.

Hemlock Overlook

Yesterday instead of going to the office I met met my Vistage group out at Hemlock Overlook for some teambuilding exercises. Leading up to the day, knowing our Chair, I was worried he would have us up on the 30 ft high ropes course. Fortunately and unfortunately that didn't happen. I say fortunately because as soon as I heard that we weren't doing it I was relieved. But unfortunately because I had sorta gotten myself pschyed up to try it. Only 6 of our 16 members showed up so the turnout was little disappointing and you need 14 people to do the high ropes course.

Regardless we were challenged physcially at times and mentally constantly. I like the team building games, problem solving is always fun.

This was the first time we did this, maybe next time we will do the ropes. Vistage is a pretty cool thing, it's group of senior executives and we meet once a month usually at one of our places of business. The monthly meeting consists of a speaker (topics ranging from leadership, personal development, employee development, world issues, health, etc.) and then the second half of the day we work issues. This is really quite interesting. Each meeting you come in and are asked to rate these three topics from 1-5 - Business, Personal and Health. Before we work the issues we work around the table and each person gives an update on what has been going on with them since the last meeting meeting hitting on each of the three topics. It becomes clear from the updates and ratings who may have an issue to work that particualr session.

Once the issues have been put on the table, the member digs into the issue and the group asks questions to flush out what the issue is and what the member needs from the group. After all questions are asked, each member of the group gives advice on the issue. You may or may not agree with the advice, but it's very interesting to see how different people think. Also when there are that many people working an issue it really brings out things you haven't thought of and sometimes the real issue is flushed out and it's something very different than what the member put on the table. I've worked an issue twice and both times it really helped me get some perpective and figure out how to to tackle it so I was able to resolve the issue much better than I would have on my own.

Anyway yesterday was fun...

The Neighbor’s House

When a house goes on the market in my neighborhood, all the neighbors like to check it our when it’s open. So this weekend we decided to take a walk down the street to see a new house that just went on the market. As we turn the corner and are walking toward the house we also see balloons and the open sign for another house in the hood – Her house.

Well we go into the first house and check it out. It’s quite nice and much more expensive than the other houses for sale in our hood, which is why we wanted to see it. One draw back, the house next door had a fire last March and is still in major disrepair. In fact I had not realized how bad the fire was until we got a view of it from the neighbor’s backyard. It was quite a fire. I’m not sure why it is taking so long to get it repaired, insurance or something else, but it can’t be making it any easier for the neighbors to sell their house.

Anyway done with that. I want to go see Her house. Not that I really about seeing what the house looks like, but to get the info on her departure. The real estate agent has the same last name so I was thinking it might be her son and we worried she might be there. The hubby advised against going, but we were already halfway there and I wanted to go, so we did.

She was there. We walk in and wind back to the kitchen, the real agent greets us and she is right behind him. I introduce myself and sign in using my maiden name so we don’t have to worry about any backlash. I also let him know we are neighbors but I know a coworker looking for a house, this is true. She is really giving me the eye. Am I paranoid? Maybe she’s just an ornery old lady and looks at everyone that way. This is probably the truth but she also probably knows my voice, who cares. I look her in the eye and say hello, can’t remember if she said hello back or not but I don’t think she did. So the agent is giving me the hard sell. I told him we just want to get some info and take a quick tour but he was aggressive. I took the opportunity find out that they are retiring and have a house ready but won’t move until the house is sold. DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! This is hard market to sell a house in. Oh well now I am ready to go but Paul and Gigi are somewhere in the house and this guy is really selling hard. Finally we are leaving and he says he’ll call me in a few days for feedback. Go ahead I left a fake number…

My New Favorite Person

One of the hardest parts about being a working mom is making a decision on what isn’t going to get done. Obviously your child needs all the care attention you give her. You have an obligation to be at work. Keeping nutritious food in the house and preparing meals, kind of important. Laundry can become a real issue if you haven’t done it and you’re trying to get your child’s breakfast and lunch ready and get out the door for work and you find she has no clean pants. So what gets left undone, unless of course you’re Supermom and need no sleep? In our house, its housekeeping.

Last year we remodeled our kitchen, it looks great. Take a quick guess on how many times our new floor was mopped since Jan 1st? Let’s see it’s August, so you think maybe once a month, so 8 times? Doubt it, my guess is once. Bathrooms, more often, but still not as often as needed, especially the floors. I’ve wanted to hire a housekeeper for about three years now. But for one the hubby was completely opposed, ”I’ll do more cleaning”, he has not. The cost, the rates I was hearing were a bit prohibitive. Plus, I’ve never had someone come in my house while I wasn’t home and spend hours working in our personal space.

I got over all that. A friend recommend her housekeeper and I jumped on it. Wow, I can never go back! Yesterday was her first day; she will come once every two weeks. Yesterday being the first visit was heavy duty as she needed to get everything up to par. Now I know what I just wrote, but really I didn’t think our house was “that” dirty. We keep it fairly straight, everything in its place and don’t allow real messes to go without being immediately addressed. Really it’s dust that we have an issue with (thinking about getting our ducts cleaned but that’s a whole other story). When I walked in our house yesterday after her visit I was floored, (excuse the pun). Not only were all the floors clean, bathrooms sparkly and all the surfaces dust free. But things I don’t think much about were pristine like the wood blinds and the base boards, the toothbrush holder, behind the cappuccino machine, etc. The transformation was incredible. Everywhere I turned I was in awe, all the finest details – clean.

Needless to say I have a new favorite person.

Birthday Beach Week

This past week we went back to the condo we like to rent in O.C. We were celebrating my 40th. The week was nice, we spent plenty of time on the beach and at the carnivals.

Weekend Fun

We had a nice weekend with lots of social stuff. Saturday we went to a coworkers BBQ which was lots of fun, sorry no pics. Sunday we hd a playdate with Abigail, lots of pics so here are few...

Abigail's Party

It's funny to think about a time before we had kids. We went to visit some friends yesterday for their daughter's 2nd birthday. We originally met them before we all had children. Now here we are celebrating children's birthdays. Nothing groundbreaking but it's interesting to stop and think about how time keeps moving and things keep evolving.

Abigail is now two years old, last time we saw her was a year ago on her 1st birthday. This year it was nice because the two girls could really play together. And Play they did. They were the only two little ones at the party and ran around all over the place together.








Abigail was nice enough to allow Gigi to help her open presents, which I am happy say she did very politely and then handed the goods over to Abigail's mom as she opened each gift.

Towards the end Ms. G was quite tired, it took about two minutes for her to fall asleep on the drive home!