Countdown to London

I can't believe that two weeks from this moment I'll be on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, winging my way to London.  With that in mind, I know that it is high time I've checked back in with my blog peeps and finalized some plans!

I asked those of you who live anywhere within reasonable traveling distance of London to save the date and meet up with me on Friday, July 29th for dinner.  Now I need to get a count of who will be able to be there and make some reservations. Will YOU be able to meet up with me????  The apartment we have rented is in the Fitzrovia section of London and I'll be looking for a restaurant close to there, but also close to a station for those using public transportation.  King's Cross is fairly close by.  Any recommendations?

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this shot of Item 15 on the Scavenger Hunt - a team logo.  Taken at the Varsity Inn Restaurant in Ocean City N.J.  Almost every square inch of wall space is covered with college team pennants.

Memorandum Monday - a post without a photo

I did have something "new" happen to me over the weekend. But it wasn't pleasant.  You'll be glad there are no photos.

I was driving down Route 33 headed to Saylorsburg - Jay and I were on our way to one of our favorite flea markets. Less than a mile from the exit, I saw a flash of grey and heard a "thwack" against my windshield (at 60 miles per hour). The sound literally made me feel sick in the pit of my stomach.  And then I just started sobbing.  I don't know what kind of bird it was. There was nothing I could have done to avoid it, as it flew right into the windshield.  After nearly 40 years of driving with a clean record, killing nothing more than the bugs that splatter against the windshield on the highway, I experienced my first nature fatality at my own hands.

As we arrived at the flea market and parked, I was still crying. I hope nothing like that ever happens again because it honestly felt awful.

On a happier note, we had a great flea marketing weekend and I hope to catch you all up soon on what is happening with The Shop these days!

Two Weeks Ago

My babies became college graduates...

 A friend of theirs took this photo. I love it. No need to say more.

 On a grey and drizzly Saturday morning, we gathered outside to watch the first ceremony - the graduation of the Schools of Business and Education.  Rachel has a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Communications.  The red cord denotes honors in her major.

The second ceremony, for the School of Science, began just past noon. And the sun had finally put in an appearance, so we were all stripping off the layers of clothing we had needed to survive the morning.  We got to listen to another round of all the same speeches. Then I missed getting Becca during the recessional because she was way earlier in the pack than we anticipated.  But she was happy to recreate her victory moment.  She graduates with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science.  One very tough and demanding major.  We couldn't be prouder!

And we got through the day with a minimum of drama!

Now the girls are moved back home and we are still working to integrate their stuff and their schedules into our home and daily routine.

Dusting Off The Microphone

Tap. Tap. Hello?  Is this thing on???

By now all my readers have likely moved on to more interesting and updated hotspots or are sitting back in wonderment at how eerily quiet things have been in my little piece of real estate in the blogosphere.  Is the place vacant?  Did she pack up and move in the middle of the night?

No, I'm still here. Well, sort of still here.  I've planned so many posts in my brain, but have had such precious little time to translate any of them to words on a screen.  I think about writing. Then I don't. Then I feel guilty. I've let myself down. I've let my readers down. My little home on Planet Internet has been left lonely and neglected. The weeds are growing rampant, the dust lies thickly on every surface. The place looks abandoned.  All that is missing are the shuttered windows and the crooked hanging sign that says "closed".  

What could have possibly kept me away for so long?  Hmmm.  Life?  A series of unfortunate events?  Yes, and Yes.  Remember how back in February my computer DIED suddenly and without warning?  And I had to wait until March 10 to get my new one? And then all the time spent setting it up?  ... Well, I had barely owned the thing for a month when it somehow caught a nasty virus and we had to restore it back to factory settings.  All that time I spent setting it up ... all the programs loaded.... all the preferences checked... ALL GONE. Again.

The virus happened around mid-April... so it isn't a surprise to me look back and see that I haven't blogged since April 4th.  We got the discs and did the whole reset on April 25th and I started loading programs again. But this time, my heart just hasn't been in it.  I still don't have PSE and LR set up for my preferences, and I'm still finding Windows 10 a bit confusing to navigate. And the computer is still a bit fussy and temperamental.  So it is hard to get photos to go with posts since my editing capabilities aren't fully functional yet. And I really hate to post without photos.

So here are some photos:

 These first three are layouts created for Rachel & Becca's School of Life albums for 7th through 12th grades.  I did all these at the ALS Charity Crop on April 22 & 23.  I found it very hard to digi-scrap on my laptop computer.  The screen just isn't big enough!

This two page spread is of Sarah's high school graduation party - it will feature in all three girls' albums as it is a great example of what it looks like when extended family & friends gather! That was really all I could handle for a day & a half crop, but still happy to have them done!

I will endeavor to stop back at some point during the weekend and catch you up on other doings in my life. But please don't hold me to it - life is crazy busy right now!

Memorandum Monday

I spent last weekend in D.C. visiting Sarah.   We drove down Friday morning.  New things I did on Friday:  saw the movie "Alliegant" and went to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum.  There I saw:

A Concorde jet. I learned that these planes catered to first class customers and could carry 100 passengers across the Atlantic in less than 4 hours.  I wish that were true of the flight I'll be taking in July!  Alas, the Concorde fleet was retired in 2003 and this plane was donated to the museum.

The space shuttle Discovery.  I learned that the Discovery completed 39 missions between 1984 - 2011 before it was retired.  Seeing this thing up close, it is really much larger than I had imagined it would be, although my husband tells me much of the space was a cargo hold, not areas for the astronauts.

There were so many other interesting aircraft - WWI fighters,  military helicopters, racing planes - a very interesting stop!

On Sunday I went to a new to me flea market - in an indoor parking garage structure in Arlington, VA!  Interesting flea market, but the parking garage is dark and made it difficult to really see all the goodies.

Joining in with Sian and all the Memorandum Monday folks. 

Snap!

Since Spring isn't quite here yet, I splurged at Trader Joe's and bought myself a $5.99 bouquet of Easter flowers.  Who says money can't buy happiness?

Joining in with Helena's meme this week.

Memorandum Monday

To:  All My Blog Friends
From: Cheri
Date: March 28, 2016
Re: Your Health

I have been reading Grain Brain by Dr. David Perlmutter.  It follows closely with Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis that I read a few years ago. Both books espouse the theory that our grain-laden diets (and especially the GMO grains) are responsible for a myriad of medical problems from type 2 diabetes and obesity to skin conditions, headaches, and a host of inflammatory diseases. Grain Brain goes beyond the physical conditions and claims that grains and sugar are responsible for (or negatively affect) conditions such as Alzheimers, Parkinson's, bi-polar disorder, and even ADHD.

I'm not that far into the book, but this past weekend I read that studies as far back as nineteen years ago (and the book was published in 2013, so even longer than that) showed no correlation between high cholesterol levels and the incidence of heart attack or stroke. In fact, Perlmutter claims that people with high cholesterol levels (240+) fared better on memory and cognitive testing and had lower incidence of dementia than people with low cholesterol levels.  Say what now?   Yet, the medical and pharma communities are still pushing us to eat low-fat, low-cholesterol diets and to take statins if cholesterol levels hit over the 200 mark. So glad I passed on that statin prescription last year!

As I said, I'm not that far into the book, and I'm not taking it as gospel, but it is a strong reminder as to why I went to a Paleo lifestyle several years ago and a reminder that I need to get back to it. Unfortunately the convenience (grab and go) of grain-based products always seems to pull me back.

Today, Cathy Zielski shared this article on our FIT group.  It's a very condensed version of some of the same thoughts if you want a quick read!

recycling an old photo to add some happy to this post!

Joining in with Sian and all the Memorandum Monday folks. Hope you all have a healthy and happy week!