Category: family

Wesolego Alleluja!

That’s Happy Easter to my friends not of my Polish background.

I miss my heritage and if I was more inspired, I would probably try to do some sort of Easter but down here.It is too sad, and what I manage to do is buy some kielbasa, rye bread, horseradish, eggs, ham and some peeps.

Pretty sad the 56-year-old me has settled for that for an Easter.I haven’t been feeling good, and think I will just cherish my time with my girls tomorrow and eat as ethnically as I can,and pray to my family in heaven.

The times, they are a-changing….

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And yeah, Mom, the white hyacinth is for you, as usual.

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SNL Christmas Special

Well, normally I could catch White Christmas on actual television the night before my birthday, but this year it seems not to be.It’s kind of weird, as there are a lot of years I missed SNL so I never heard some of this stuff.

I am thankful for having another year under my belt.I am so grateful that Zosia has made it through a medical up and down year, and is still hanging in, and that Kasia is more of a love bug than I ever could imagine.I am happy that I almost have a full year of city retirement under my belt.I am thankful for my family, and I miss them: things would be good if I got to see them more.

Most of all, thanks, Gentle Reader, for hanging in for another year of my posts: you are appreciated more than you can imagine.

Just One

I have a day off tomorrow.

One.

It’s incredible, how just a day off got me through the day. I am missing a two day weekend. It has gotten to the point that just having 24 hours with Jim and the girls is a tonic that I am sorely in need of.

Enjoy what’s left of your weekend. Give the ones you love a hug.

  

same stuff, different day….

.is what I have found out down here at Amity, er Townbank. More importantly a politician is a politician is a politician.

We went to the rather hush-hush hurry up meeting that was held at 4PM today at the town hall. Oh yes, Mr. Mayor, I really agree we should first ENFORCE the laws we have in existence.Let’s see how that fares through the end of the season.Plenty of blah-blah and total kiss offs to anyone who has a dog.They are more concerned about the tourists and their grandchildren and the possibility of them getting bit:did I tell you they announced in the meeting there was one, count’s ONE dog bite on file last year.

So screw the fact that people drove to this meeting from out-of-state, and the Mayor was a patronizing POS politician, talking out of both sides of his mouth.Some of us have lives to come home to and thingsact that people drove to this meeting from out-of-state, and the Mayor was a patronizing POS politician, talking out of both sides of his mouth.Some of us have lives to come home to and things to do, like walk the girls.

Didn’t my neighbor stay to the end and tell me that as everyone left, the board quietly voted to pass the amendment preventing dogs on beach from 11am to 4PM in season.Never mind the trash left behind by the day trippers and the crime that comes with them.This was what was causing them sleep.

Guess what, Mayor Michael Beck, Council persons, Norris Clark,Thomas Conrad, David Perry and Erik Simonsen.We have got your number and now that you made Lower Township lacking tolerance for dogs, we will be campaigning against you 5. Your pictures will be plastered all over and although you are not Michael Vick, well, when you separate us from our family members, there just aren’t words. We will make sure all people who rent will be “used to” renters, as we spread word through vet offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York.Every dog magazine will hear how terrible it is to be here in Lower Township, thanks to 5 men who write with their tiny pens in their pockets and sign laws to make them feel like big dogs.

Guess what,cowardly boys? You are going OUT.

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Dinner

We had dinner at our friends’ house tonight.We were going to go out for dinner but stayed in and had just as good a time.

My buddy Juls belongs to a gourmet club, but that’s in another area, in another state.We just hang with our buds, have some good food and great conversation.It is always neat to hang out with friends, and to kick back and have some good times.

I never understood when my brother and sister-in-law out in the midwest said about being with close friends who become your family when you are physically away from your family.Now in this new life chapter titled retirement, I have come to appreciate what the spoke of for many years.

It’s good to have friends…we are blessed to have them.

Holiday away

It’s hard this year.

I pulled out my Mom’s ceramic Easter egg and a small crocheted easter egg she had. I couldn’t handle too much more out, because it’s the first Easter at the new home.We won’t be here for dinner, per se, because we’ll be with Jim’s Mom and family.

When Mom was around,we had Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving every year at our home, and did what a lot of couples do: go to the other spouse’s family so everyone gets even time and you try not to slight anyone.

Mom is gone three years.

I haven’t had a Polish Easter in 3 years and for some reason, I am a little sad about it. I miss the traditions, although having the Polish parish in Manayunk get shut down by the Archdiocese doesn’t help either.I miss my brother and his family, I miss my Aunt and cousin: I am missing a lot.

My memory is still ok though, so I will have to share Easter with them in my prayers and in my mind and heart.

I am thankful that God still will let me do that.

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Melancholy Overload

A buddy of mine had posted a picture on Facebook tonight and it showed a plate of pizzelle cookies and some wine.Gee, I thought, what a good idea, until I remembered that my pizzelle maker is down at Undisclosed.

**sigh**

I think of other things that I could be doing up here, or, over the weekend, reverse it to down there, and whatever I am looking for always seems to be in the opposite place.The girls and I have been doing our walks, and I look around at their favorite routes and wonder to myself if they’ll miss it.

**sigh**

I stop and think about the history of this house that I am in right now, and it is the last place that my entire family was together seventeen years ago. Yes, I know that you take the memories with you but,……

**sigh**

We are going through the holiday season right now and I am trying hard to keep in the spirit. It really isn’t easy, and as my buddies would say, when you are down there full time, things will be good and different and you will feel better.

I like to think that I am ready to move forward into a new chapter of life. I just wish I didn’t feel the need to think I am going to need an ativan chaser for it.

Posting a little early

We are down at Undisclosed and on our way our to a neighborhood Christmas party.Actually, my “sister” and friend Georgine sneaks a homemade cake in the party as an early birthday for me, as my family is spread far apart and doesn’t do it anymore.

The girls are walked, and emptied and now rested. We are looking forward to a nice party and being able to walk to the party is an added plus. I managed to get over 13,000 steps in today, but more than that, we have no worries about drinking and driving.

If you are going out for any holiday party,please have a designated driver if you are going, and have fun, but most importantly, be safe.

Let’s keep the upcoming holiday season a happy one!

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Christmas Lights

One of the perks of walking the dogs at night right now is, despite that it’s cold out right now, folks have Christmas lights up.

At my age, I remember the lights my father would put up on our row home porch every year.The tradition was, he put them up in time for my Mom’s December 18th birthday: it was the traditional flip of the first switch.We loved it. It was tradition, it celebrated Mom’s birthday, my birthday and the most important birthday,Christmas.As I got older and my nephew Greg was born on December 19th, I took my toddler nephew Matt out through the neighborhood to ooh and ah at all the lights.

Now I walk the girls at night and there are blown up reindeer and snow globes and God knows what else adorning lawns in neighborhoods.The lights are no longer simple,in fact some of them are LED giving a whole different glow to Christmas.I always look and admire the handiwork that I see in front of me, no matter the amount of kitsch in it, because I remember the lights of the row home 50 years ago and the warm memories with it.

Nothing like it in the world.

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Thanksgiving week

It’s that time of year again for me.

I think it’s kind of common that when you get to a point in a life, you have some balance, and then the balance tips the other way.

I miss and honor those who are no longer with me at Thanksgiving.

It’s not really a fair statement, as I miss them every day. I include them in my prayers daily.Perhaps if things were different, the melancholia that settles over me like a fog could be shaken off.But it doesn’t. I strive to savor those with me, have loving thoughts for those separated from me by distance, and prayers for those who are having a heavenly holiday.

There was a time when grandparents were still around, and aunts and uncles and parents and cousins and, in short, a full table.

If only……**sigh**20121112-160316.jpg

Hanging out together

We went out for a walk today, Mom, Dad, Zush, and Kasia.

The sky was the prettiest shade of blue and the clouds pretty neat. The weather was cool so we went for a nice two-mile walk on the beach. Jim went ahead with the girls and I kind of hung back: I kept flipping the phone to track how far we were walking and then to take some pretty beach shots.I was happy to meet a friend of Jim’s on the beach: her name was Fran.Evidently she would always be on that stretch of beach because she is from the area.She was there with her bulldog, Otis.

The sad part is we are going back up tonight.Here’s hoping the packing and last-minute chores can be relatively painless….lol.

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End of the Summer Season

Yup, I know Fall doesn’t start until late September.

As I sit here and type this, I am looking out the window and looking at the late summer lawn and garden.Part of me is genuinely sad, as I am sitting in the room where both my parents passed away in 1998 and 2012.That thought and looking at the outside really makes me feel the passage of time.Part of me laments the fact that I used to go swimming in the summer with Zush, and the fact that we are both getting a little older, well, Zush goes in and I keep her company going up to my mid-calves.

I feel depressed.

The hope I have is for the future.

The hope to finish out my time here in the city and pray that the future is kind to us all.To actually live in a house with my husband that is ours and with our furniture and belongings and things that are ours is something that I am patiently waiting for. I hear Jim say about how is going to miss his job, and yet, I am leaving mine to move as is he, and this was the first time I heard him express that.Wow…something else to mull over in my mind,

I mull these things over in my head, and although I know I am more than ready to leave, I can only pray that we all survive the transition.

In the crispness of fall, hopefully, things will be comforting to us and we all will be alright.

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Continuing saga of Jersey Tomatoes

We got to Undisclosed today and found a few more tomatoes ready to offer their lives up for us!
They got to get to that rich tomato color so I knew it was time.We had burgers with lettuce, tomato and onion on them and they were great.

We checked into the progress the organic grow tower was making and we saw some great strides being made by the beans, especially.The tomatoes and peppers are chugging along and the kale is getting there. It has to be the composting, because at out old house, we never composted. You can see the difference in the growth here. Compostman has worked his magic!

The problem now is that people want us to deliver up to the city.Hah. What we grow we are keeping, and then the family will share in the rest. We have to step up our production if we want to bring them back to the city.

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The Summer of George

The summer of George was a product of the Seinfeld series. His fiancée dies and he is going to have the time of his life that summer, doing whatever he intends to do. I believe a hunk of cheese eating while in boxers was also involved.

This is not the summer of George that I am referring to.

I am writing about Prince George of Cambridge, who is celebrating his first birthday today.

Having grown up around Diana, Princess of Wales, wedding to Prince Charles,the flicker of interest in the royals across the pond flames up.Hell, the people are OUR age and look what they are wearing and doing.Look at the styles they are rocking.We followed all the adventures, missteps,and eventual tragedies that hit the house of Windsor.

But there was always Prince William and Prince Harry.They matured nicely, and with Harry acting the role formerly held by his uncle, Prince Andrew,and managing to keep it in the family. William settled down and started the next generation.

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George of Cambridge was born one year ago today and England is all abuzz with hopes and speculations of the future for the one being labelled “The most eligible infant”.

Happy Birthday Prince George.

Nothing like a rainy 4th of July

The collective sound of disappointment is from all the collective people who made plans for activities for the fourth of July.

Here at Undisclosed Deux, it is raining buckets.Allegedly the rain will finish later and Saturday and Sunday promise to be nice. The rain I, for one, welcome, because yesterdays’ humidity was a little much,and the front has brought the temperature down to manageable levels.

Have a good fourth with family and friends!

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And with a pause in the action…

Took advantage of our company and kept busy throwing a small birthday party for Jim and our brother-in-law on Sunday with our family at Undisclosed Deux.

Today, however, is the actual day.
My husband turns 60 today.
It’s surreal.

You are dating in your twenties and thirty seems old, and so on. You get married in your forties and, wait a second, you’re married long enough that your spouse is starting another decade.Well, it’s a good thing, as a birthday always is,and happily for me, we have been together for so long that I appreciate the fact that he has gotten there before me.Without his wisdom, I would have fallen by the wayside many times.Together we are a pretty well oiled machine and Jim is definitely the brains and brawn behind this machine of this marriage.We’ve had tons of ups and downs as I am sure, all married couples have, but we are in it for the long haul.

Happiest of birthdays, Jim.
Sto Lat!Kocham cię.

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Grand Opening(of sorts)

One of Jim’s sisters and her husband are coming down for the weekend to Undisclosed Deux.

It’s official!

The construction is put to bed!

I honestly can say that it has been an awfully long stretch of time checking on contractors, looking for flaws, questioning work…but it is done.The fact that it is no longer just us but also company**albeit family** puts this chapter of the life of Undisclosed to bed.

I am hoping for a wonderful weekend for all, some good yard-sales with my sister-in-law Joanna, and a ton of card playing!

Let the games begin!

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