Neighbors from hell

  Looking forward to a trip to PARIS.  Trying to get all of my ducks in a row.
Not sure how I am going to handle all of that WALKING.  I am used to car to house to car to library to car to store to house.  Also I have to resort to WHEELS to lug all of my crap around.  It will have to be a new and lighter me to get around Paris.

Not so light today though.  Gained weight overnight.  Probably cause I ate hors d'oeuvres all day.  Need a new approach for that.  Can't eat everything in sight just cause it is going to be my "meal".  Next time I should try one of everything and only have seconds if it is something HEALTHY.  We had Cinco de Mayo snacks after church and more delicious food offerings after an author lecture.

Boy, do I need a change of scene.  The scene directly around my house is really getting on my nerves.  I have a letter I wish I could send to the landlord of my neighbors.  I haven't written it yet but it details about 10 things they have done to annoy me in the month that they have been there.  Now, I know they are not doing it specifically to annoy ME, but how can people like or not notice trash all over the place and loud dog barking?  I was only home for two hours on Saturday and that d*&^ pitbull was barking for at least one of those hours.

In a windowless room at the beach

My plan for the day was to lie on the beach and then take a walk.  Also spend a few hours in the computer lab at the Ocean City library. And maybe visit a friend in an aging place.   Well, the beach was wild and windy.  I should have been happy as it was beautiful and I was allowed to access it and there was NO ONE THERE!  But I was freezing as I swore never to wear a coat any more a few weeks ago.  I will have to find somewhere inland to get my walk in.

So I came over to the library.  I love this library.  You sit in the computer lab with comfortable chairs and very few people.  They are all well behaved.  Only problem is, there is not enough room for all of my STUFF.  But, hopefully, they still allow you THREE hours on the computer if no one is waiting.  Now, that is more like it! I am always struggling to get all my computer chores done.  It is a never-ending battle.

Actually, this is an "excursion" day.  I need to plan one a week.  Haven't even been able to get THAT in as every day seems to have an event.  Sometimes only one event, but an event nonetheless.  But now I am thinking that I need to schedule TWO excursion days....one for the beach and one for all the other places I would like to go.  Why not?  I AM retired, after all!  I could visit oh-so-many beach towns and get back to my idea of exploring every exit of the Garden State Parkway.  And suddenly, miraculously, my Sprint navigator started working again!  I do have some slight fear that the saleslady at the Sprint store might have signed me up by pushing a button that I never push.  She was trying to show me how to load a picture onto Facebook from the phone.  That, BTW, was NOT successful.  Only a small portion of the picture appeared on Facebook.  It looked good, but was incomplete.  Back to the drawing board on that one.

Vaguely Jesus-y bon-vivant

I love this phrase.  A woman told a story on NPR last night about a plane ride and people who may have thought she was a "vaguely Jesus-y bon-vivant".  That's me!

Stopped by a group of people in front of the municipal building in Millville, New Jersey.  I heard singing.  They were singing a patriotic song.  How nice, I thought.  Then I got a creepy feeling that they were gun rights supporters or something I wasn't in favor of.  Guess I will have to read about it in the paper.

Went to Jim's lunch for lunch today.  It is a very colorful little restaurant that closes down for the whole summer every year.  They have three sizes of rice pudding, WITH or without raisins.  Now, where else can you find that?!

MY most beautiful women

Gwyneth Paltrow was just voted the world's most beautiful woman.  So I thought I would add MY most beautiful women:
- Fergie
- Beyonce
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Queen Latifah

Can't really think of my choices for most beautiful man.  What does that say about me?  Alright....

- Legalos
- Sawyer in Lost
- Brad Pitt in the olden days
- George Clooney

Gorgeous day today.  Weather is fine, plants are blooming, all sorts of purple things confusing me.
I took two walks already today.  I learned at the recent lecture that I should be doing 30 minutes of CARDIO 5 days a week.  So will have a new statistic at the end of each day.  Minutes of cardio over total minutes of exercise for the WEEK.  Yoga and arthritis exercise don't really count for CARDIO.

Lilac or wisteria?

I get them confused.  Not only that, but I had to search on the Internet to remember the names of either or both of them.  At least, I know how to do THAT.  I love them both and they both smell great.  We had a wisteria bush/tree growing up in what we called the "park".  Not many lilac trees around in domestication...they mostly seem to be in the wild. 

Book review:  Have to return this book today as I got it on Interlibrary loan from the Franklin Township Public Library (F WOLITZER) .  An available man, by Hilma Wolitzer.  I like a book about a "modest and bookish" man who becomes single at age 62 after his second wife dies.  His children put an ad in The New York review of books hoping he will meet someone new.  I can relate, except for the DATING parts.  So, it is about his life, his relatives, his dog, an old girlfriend and various other women who pass through his sphere.

I am trying to become a better library patron.  This is hard for a librarian who is used to "professional courtesy" as far as fines go.  I seem to have finagled a deal at my OWN library, but I notice one of the other libraries in the system is charging me fines!  And a local library I frequent went off and joined a different group so I am just another lousy patron in their book.  So, I am returning a book due today on ILL and also another book I couldn't get into.  Feeling kind of bad about that since the back cover was filled with GLOWING words about it.  I wanted to get a book called Life after life by Jill McCorkle, who went to my college (Hollins University).  There is ANOTHER book of the same name so I got that one, too.  That is the one that I couldn't get into.  Also feel bad because the author, Kate Atkinson, wrote another book that I enjoyed....Started early, took my dog. Isn't that a great title!?   Maybe I will try it another time, but I brought it back because I noticed that someone else had put it on hold and I hadn't gotten very far into it.

And I thought OUR soap operas were bad

Forced to watch Spanish TV during my lunch.  Not fun.  Really bad acting and outfits and over the top everything.  This is one big disadvantage of eating in the little Spanish restaurants....loud and bad TV.  But I DID have some really delicious guacamole. 

Hard to concentrate cause I am listening to Tupac singing Hit em'up while I write. 

Book review:  Circle of quilters (an Elm Creek quilts novel) by Jennifer Chiaverini, narrated by Christina Moore. I borrowed the audiobook on CD from the Cumberland County Library (CDBR F CHI).  First one of these books I have listened to.  Interesting approach.  She follows stories about 4 people who all apply for the same job at Elm Creek quilt camp.   What I liked about the stories is how people just seemed to fall into careers doing what they loved.  What I didn't like about it is that each person had one really annoying person in their life.  You just wanted to shake them and ask how they could put up with it for so long.  This book appears somewhere in the middle or at the end of the series. 

Woof-woof-woof woof woof woof

Aaurgh!  Up in the night with that damn dog barking.  I actually got up and got dressed and went out at 1:11 PM to find out where it was.  Turns out it was the Mexicans right in back of me.  Now whenever I hear it, I have to time it and call the police after 15 minutes.  Why would you put a loudly barking dog outside in the middle of the night when respectable people are sleeping?!?!?  Neighbors...I hate'em.




Azeleas blooming and lilacs!  How wonderful.

I think I have accomplished the important planning for my upcoming trip.  My God, but it is time consuming.
I think I can rest easy now.  Have the airplane, the excursion AND the hotel.  As for what I am doing day to day, that can wait.