The Year in Review, my top 25

Now, this post will not necessarily be about world events - mostly it will be about MY world's events in 2010. A year of ups and downs, for sure. Mostly it ended up being a good year. Hope you enjoy the roller coaster ride!

1 - My beloved Grandpa and Grandma died within 6 weeks of each other. This was quite shattering to our small family and really, the first deaths of any relatives to whom I was very close. Sorry to start out with such a bummer...It gets happier...

2 - We went on a faaaabulous vacation to Tortola:
We are soon to be going to Tortola briefly on our way to Jost Van Dyke, another of the British Virgin Islands. LOVE Jost! We'll be there in a mere 36 days!

3 - The hubby and I celebrated the 10th anniversary of our first date on Valentine's Day! Yay for us!

4 - We helped a family who was here from Haiti. Until they totally took advantage of our niceness and used a gazillion minutes on the cell phone we lent to them. There were literally like 20 calls on there a day - sometimes with a call lasting over an hour. Our phone bill was astronomical and the mother appeared to be somewhat of a scammer. Oh, well! Live and learn.

5 - Spring came early in 2010! March was divine and I even had crocus sprouting:And here they are three days later:
This was quite seriously the best growing year I can remember!

6 - Ricky Martin came out.

7 - I got sick.

8 - I got better.

9 - I had mystery plants - a false indigo: And much later in the season, a saponaria.


10 - We started the process of adoption! And, there is no new news. Still waiting for our social worker to complete our home study. It takes a long time...

11- I rescued a baby bird that made my friend, June, over there at Bye, Bye Pie wildly jealous! Unfortunately, the birdie did not make it, but I tried my best.

12 - Sadie almost died. She had to have an emergency splenectomy because a large tumor had grown so big, it ruptured her spleen. That was one scary-ass day, pardon my French. She recovered quickly from her surgery and this is a picture of her just two days after the surgery:
What ya doin' mom?

13 - It was my BIRTHDAY!

14 - I had really pretty flower boxes!

15 - We went to England:
And SPAIN! I LOOOOOVED Spain:


16 - The hubby and I had a great trip on our boat. We went down the coast, through the Cape Cod Canal:

to an adorable harbor in Quisset, MA - in Buzzard's Bay:

Through Wood's Hole:
And then over to Martha's Vineyard:
We fished, we swam, we read, we cooked and we had a really, really wonderful time!

17 - I bitched a lot about the weather. It was the hottest, most humid summer. Blech.

18 - Within a two week span, a cute guy told me I was "adorable" and then two young dudes whistled at me and yelled out to me that I had "nice legs!" These were thrilling events. How pathetic!

19 - I totally screwed up my back. Started going to the chiropractor. Really pathetic!

20 - TWO Mexican restaurants opened in Salem. This erases everything bad that happened the entire year!

21- Sadie has dementia. And started pooping in odd places like the couch where she sleeps, my car and the dining room. Not good. We are going to put her on a medicine that is given to Alzheimer's patients. It works well in 70% of cases, so let's all cross our fingers and toes for THAT. Jeez!

22 - We had an epic Halloween party again! I was rockin' the Snooki outfit:


23 - I discovered Hyperbole and a Half! SO funny!

24 - We hosted a huge Thanksgiving.

25 - I gave myself this award:
Because everyone deserves an award for SOMETHING, right?

And that about sums up the year!

We are having dinner with some really good friends later and then will come back here to have some drinks and play silly games! A nice way to round out 2010.

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe New Year's Eve! Here's to 2011! Cheers!

Quickie Updatey

I have not been posting daily. I know. Bad girl.

I have been doing this and-a that and-a this and-a that. Cleaning, laundry, grocery store in preparation of our upcoming diet, exercising, and the list goes on... One of the things I had not wanted to do is take Sadie to the vet AGAIN. Our little girl's dementia is getting worse and in the last week and a half she has been having trouble remembering that she's house trained... Pooping in the house and even in the CAR! My, my.

Well, yesterday we went to the vet for them to draw blood to check her liver (because she's on the dog equivalent of ibuprofen), and they also tested her urine and it turns out that she's got a urinary tract infection on top of the dementia! So, I just returned from the vet and got some antibiotics to treat the UTI and we've also ordered this drug that is used on humans to treat Alzheimer's and senility.

Boy, this is fun!

Poor Sadie.
Losing her mind and control of her bladder - sort of losing it at both ends! Despite everything, she continues to make it her function in life to be as close to me as possible and now, of course, since it's snowy out, she asks to go out 356 times a day! That dog LOVES the snow!

Some of the signs of senility in dogs is losing track of their house training - check. Getting stuck in corners - check. Going to the wrong side of the door to be let in or out (i.e. on the "hinge" side vs. the "opening" side) - also check. And one of the last symptoms is failing to greet their owner or not caring about being pet anymore. Luckily, that has NOT happened, and she still just loves the crap out of me!"Hi Mom!"

In other world news, a friend of mine (she's 80) lost her husband early this week; he died of advanced prostate cancer. So, I'm afraid that's all for today...I have to change and go to the funeral this afternoon. Happy friggin' New Year, right? Why does it seem there is so much death and terrible things that happen to people during the holidays?

Anywho, I gotta run and get ready to go.

Hope you're all having a nicer time of it today!

Glad the New Year is around the corner. I have not been all that fond of 2010!

Here's to 2011! clink!

Ciao for now.

Blustery Blizzard

We got TOTALLY dumped upon. It snowed. A whooooole lot. We got something like a foot of snow and then wind gusts of 40-50 mph, so we have drifts that are huge! We couldn't open our front door today! My husband had to squeeze out and shovel out the front door just so we could take the dogs for a walk!

Meantime our cars are buried and the back door to get out to the parking area is nearly buried. It's going to be interesting getting everything all cleared out. Thing about New England is that the houses are very close together, so there really is no where to put the snow when we get dumped on like this!

Here's the scene in the parking area:
Those lumps are our cars!! Yikes.

And the back yard:

Pretty, right?

I had to put on my snow pants, boots, heavy coat, hat and gloves and then run around in the back yard to make pathways for the dogs!! Of course, Sadie came outside with me to "help" - she's good like that!

Anywho, Christmas came and went this year and I know I will sound like a bah-humbug, but I'm glad it's over. I'm ready for the new year to start and to get on a health kick and lose some of this weight. I'm going to be going on the South Beach Diet again in January. Much as I know that diets are not really the way to go for long-term weight loss, the South Beach Diet just works SO darn well! And, of course, I have to think about being in a bathing suit in less than six weeks! If that doesn't motivate me, I don't know what will!!

My poor husband is now going around the house sorting through drawers and closets. Massachusetts declared a state of emergency yesterday and it is still in effect, so no one is working today - and my husband doesn't know what to do with himself!

I was just gone there for a little bit - he just roped me into going upstairs to sort through clothes. I'm back now - our guys are here to dig us out...One of the advantages to condo living is the luxury of the condo association hiring someone else to do the horrible job of shoveling! Though we don't have a big yard, there is a LOT of sidewalk and then our three-car driveway that is TOTALLY blocked in with snow from the plows that have been out all night. Since there is limited space for the plows to put the snow, a lot of it ends up pushed into people's driveways. Not fun to shovel, let me tell you!

Ok...I'm going to get bundled up again and do a bit of cross country skiing! Might as well take advantage of the snow, right?