The Birthday Princess

The birthday party as I said, was great, but nothing is greater than this picture! Happy 'Goth' Birthday mom!

Does that say "Happy GOTH Birthday Andrea" ??

Nonni Andrea & Michelle-Can you tell we're related??

Michelle-Dave-Andrea-Nonni-Bob--yup, we are related, and we'll even claim that guy on the end (sometimes!)
The Party's Over for the Birthday Princess~falling tiara and all!

Say Cheese! FINALLY!

Tom picking apples @ Lyman Orchards

Yep, They're apples!

The view from the Orchards

Rested Recovered & Relaxing!

Well, I was reminded today that it has been a while since I have posted. My apologies to you all, and my thanks to Tina for reminding me that I was due to post, luckily now, the picture thing seems to still be giving me problems, so while I thougth this post actually would include photos, I appear to be wrong...UGH!

Of course, at the beginning of October, there was the trip to New Orleans, but the following weekend was the birthday party for my mom-it was so great to spend a few days at home and meet, greet and hang out with all my mom's great friends. It's always great to see my grandmother (who was a great grandmother again on 10/8/06 to Davin Tyler Whitt. The party was great, until mom, dad, Carol & I locked ourselves out of the clubhouse at 11:30 at night and I had to climb the fence to get us out-has anyone seen those security videos yet?? :-) Happy Birthday mom-hope you had a good time!

I've been home from traveling for two weeks now, but the first week was incredibly busy with the Wine Tasting that I co-chaired for the Junior League. The event was a great success and our location, while double our budget, turned out to be a fabulous choice.

A rather uneventful weekend last week, other than apple picking in the mud at Lyman Orchards and Tom picking his very first pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch. We had just about given up and he saw one covered with leaves, etc, and picked it and it was perfect. It's hard to pick a pumpkin the week before Halloween! Yeah Tom!

This week was more JL meetings (this could be my additional full-time job, sometimes I wonder how I have time to WORK!) and the biggest news of this week is that I was given the opportunity to apply for a Regional Sales Manager position with my company (Infinity Insurance). The position would transfer us out of Connecticut, but right into Orlando or Tampa, as there are two positions open. I'm not sure what will happen, we'll have to wait and see.

The potential move to Florida (or the inevitable move, depending on how you look at it) has sparked several conversations and has filled our minds with thoughts this week. Among some of them, do we put the house up for sale now? What if it sells, what if it doesn't? Where would we go if we didn't move? What about Tom's route-surprisingly enough, someone is interested in purchasing it I found out...so that's good. What would he do when he got to Florida...could he take time off and have his knee surgery? Would he look to be in a route immediately, does he still want to own a route, what kind---sheeesh! Lots of things to think about, and this is a good place to put it all down on 'paper'! The great thing too is that you can all respond with comments! There's other stuff too, that affects my volunteering, what about Junior League-I have a commitment until May and I'd hate to disappoint anyone at the League, but the opportunity to 1. advance my career and 2. do it at HOME can't really be passed up if the offer comes to the table. Maybe I could help and finish out my year via email and online stuff? I don't know how effective that would be for them, and then I'd have to transfer leagues anyway, either to the JLT or JLGO.

Did I mention that my boss spoke with the hiring manager and the region president to recommend me for the position-it puts my department here in a bind if I leave, but it's so nice to know I'm not being held back for the good of my current region. What a great feeling. I'm so glad this 'career change' worked out the way that it has so far. I'm much happier at Infinity than I was stressing about being an agent with State Farm. The worries of staffing, payroll, sales and leadership teams are gone and relationship building, strategic partnerships and sales calls are my life now--it's FANTASTIC!

Anway, I think I might have digressed there a bit-there's lots of thoughts going on here, mostly all out of our control at this point, but they are the thoughts, none the less. I know things will work out however they're supposed to and I really don't need to worry about it--as the saying goes, 'It is what it is' or in this case 'It will be what it will be'

Enjoy not seeing my pictures ~ and have a great weekend!

Utterly Exhausted

Okay—so I’ve gotten comments to the fact that we didn’t finish blogging our trip, so I’m here to update on our last night in NOLA and our trip home. I’m sorry for the delay, I have been absolutely exhausted!

Our last night in NOLA proved to be a nice time. We went out, listened to some music and had a decent dinner, of course, this is where the ‘story’ comes in to play.

We haven’t heard much about Sarah on this trip, but she gets her spot today. For two of the three days, Sarah worked in Musician’s Village with Habitat for Humanity. Now, when someone applies to have a home built for them by Habitat, they must commit 350 labor hours to the project, so there is definite buy-in for the incoming homeowner. Since this is Musician’s Village, a lot of the homes are being built for NOLA Jazz musicians, so she met Steamboat Willie”. On Friday, (sorry but this really wasn’t a story then) she was working and someone put a pair of sunglasses in her pocket, they were found on the jobsite, however, by the end of the day she lost them. On the bus to go back to the hotel, someone from the New Orleans League got on the bus, asked for Sarah, because she had the glasses, and she didn’t know what to do, since they were gone. She scrunched down in the bus, took off her nametag and went about her travels back to the hotel.

Saturday she worked again at the same place, no news on the glasses, other than they belong to Steamboat Willie! On Saturday night when we went out, we stopped in Musical Legends Park because we saw Steamboat Willie’s banner….she worked with him and we wanted an introduction (although he really didn’t know her name or anything). We get there and he’s sitting on the bench, waiting to start his set. He says hi to her, and she makes a comment (as he’s wearing these sunglasses) that she was happy he found his glasses. He advised her that he didn’t find them, those were a different pair, and that someone named SARAH found them, and he’s hoping she actually returns them!

Now, I’m not sure how funny this is when you’re not “in the moment”, but the look on Sarah’s face when he said that was mortifying. She didn’t know what to do or say, and you could tell she felt awful. What seemed like 5 minutes, but was about 20 seconds went by and she said, “Steamboat Willie, I’m SARAH and I lost your glasses. I’m soooo sorry.” It was hysterical, especially since she hid from the Junior League girl who was looking for her to get them back! We later asked him if he knew she was Sarah, and he says he didn’t. He said that ultimately it wasn’t her fault, he was the one that lost them to begin with. So we joked about the sunglasses for a while, listed to some music that he played and enjoyed a ‘beverage’ or two before dinner.

Sunday morning our flight left at 6:00 and by noon we were home in CT, and I was on the couch—some anniversary for Tom, I slept until 5:00 and we went to dinner, came home and watched Amazing Race and Desperate Housewives, then back to bed! This week has just been catching up and now, sitting in the Charlotte, NC airport, heading to sunny Florida for the weekend. I’m sorry for the delay, but it’s been a long week!


Until next time~All the best!

McSleepy, McNappy, McMigraine & McBlind Share a Room

Okay, as usual an explanation of tonight's title. In the spirit of missing McDreamy, McSteamy & McVet last night, we have come up with our own McNames. Here's how each one came to be.

McSleepy-Nicole takes the cake for McSleepy (aka McSnorry) since she kept us all awake last night with her snoring. It's incredibly dry in our room, and it's about 60*, not condusive to sleeping after breathing in crap all day from sanding, etc...

McNappy-Sarah, who at every opportunity (other than at night) takes a little power nap to get her through the next activity. She's freezing when we're in the room, but as soon as the lights go out, she's up and complaining that it's 100* in our room (see above, it's 60*)!

McMigraine-you guessed it, yours truly had a migraine from being in the sun yesterday-but, thankfully it's gone now. The frequency of the laughter brings it back and forth, but it's not hanging out, which is a good thing!

McBlind-Dana, who as soon as dusk hits needs her guide person to help her navigate the streets of New Orleans.

McLucky-is Maureen, who is the smartest one of the bunch, and is on the 14th floor, in her own room.

Now, let me set the stage, the room S M A L L. We have two double beds, a very small bathroom, one little closet and a huge TV console/dresser combo and a desk. When I say we don't have room to breathe, I'm not kidding....we're a little crammed. Especially with four women and all of our stuff!

Today's work day was different for most of us. Dana & I both worked at Willie Mae's Restaurant and home. Willie Mae is a 90 year old woman who owns the restaurant. There were 52 of us on this job, not including the contractors who were finishing up the drywall while we were trying to sand it and get the first coat of primer on. The restaurant is also attached to Miss Willie Mae's home, and has been a staple in the Treme section of New Orleans since 1957. We met Willie Mae today and talked with her about what she has been going through since Katrina. She has been living with friends and family and wants nothing more than to get her restaurant back up and running. She told us the story about how she won the James Beard Award (an award that recognizes culinary excellence through awards, scholarships, guest chef events, educational programs, etc.) She told us how she never lets anyone go away hungry and that if she's closed and someone wants to come, she comes back and cooks for them. Her house had 4' of standing water after the storm and her home had to be gutted and rebuilt. We worked on sanding drywall mud and painting the inside and outside of her home/restuarant as well as cleaning up the weeds along the sidewalk.

We also learned today that Polly Feiner, a director and producer with Shamex Productions in West Hartford is making a documentary for the Junior League on this experience. Polly interviewed Willie Mae while we were there and brought tears to our eyes, listening to her tell us how she didn't want to evacuate, but she had no choice. Other than that, the highlight of our work day was the lunch that was brought to us by this year's James Beard winner, John Besh from Restaurant August. The food was incredible, chicken etouffe with rice, greens and cornbread. A Must Visit for your next trip to New Orleans!

Nicole's day continued at Ruby's house in the Freret area. In Ruby's house, they completed putting up the walls in the entire first floor. This house was gutted to the studs, floor to attic. They have done insulation, sheet rock, everything except for one ceiling. This house hadn't had any work done other than electrical work until Wednesday this week. Ruby had given money to a contractor and they left with her money. Her paperwork had been lost when she completed the application for Rebuilding Together, but she's back on track now. Unfortunately for Nicole, she had chicken salad for lunch.

Maureen also continued her work in the home on Freret Street where she has been working.

Sarah worked today with Habitat for Humanity in Musician's Village. She painted the outside of a house for a musician who was on the job site for the majority of the day. Sarah enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.

Tonight we wandered to find our dinner spot, and we're absolutely exhausted (only one of us slept!) and we're heading to bed. Tomorrow is our last work day and brings us to Freret Street. Dana & I will be gutting a home that has not had any work done yet, Nicole will be returning to Miss Ruby's house to mud, float and sand drywall and Sarah will be returning to Musicians Village.

So far, this has been a great experience. We have met so many great women, and their spouses/significant others, who have also given of their time to help rebuild New Orleans, and of course, we are doing our best to give back to the economy as well.

One more work day and a great night out and we'll be heading home. Back to work, our put together homes and our "normal" lives. Things here will still be a 'little left of center' but in our hearts, we know we have come here and made a difference. The Freret Street neighborhood does not have any assistance. The Junior League of New Orleans is the only help they are getting. There is no Habitat build there, there are no 'groups' coming to work in that area, it was us. They have so much to do, but they are so on their way, thanks to the JLNO and their organization of this event, we're makinga difference, one day at a time.

Until next time~All The Best

Tomb It May Concern

Let me just clarify by first saying, I did not make up the name of this blog, it came from an organization named Save Our Cemeteries (www.saveourcemeteries.org) which is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, preserving and protecting historic cemeteries of New Orleans. It's the tag-line on their t-shirts.

Today, I worked in a historic New Orleans cemetary. The work was mostly scraping the building that houses the tools and lawncare accessories. The other part of our work was cleaning out around the tombs. Since New Orleans is below sea-level, the graves here are above ground tombs. We learned about the burial process here, which has been the tradition since the 1800's and how entire families are entombed in the same place. It's amazing actually. If I could figure out how to post photos to this, I'd show you the photo of the open tomb with the decayed bones in it....but I don't know how :-(

Sarah worked inside a Habitat house, mostly painting ceilings and Dana worked gardening around the area of Bloomin'Deals, the Junior League Thrift Shop in the Freret Street neighborhood.

After our 1/2 work day, we took a bus tour of the devastation in the Ninth Ward, Musicians Alley, Metarie and several other area that sustained amazing amounts of damage. We saw houses with holes in the roofs where people were rescued, we saw the markings on the outside of the homes, showing what National Guard unit checked the house, the date it was checked, any special codes (like NE-No Entry) and if so, how many people were found deceased. We saw houses on top of vehicles, houses on top of other houses and amazing piles of debris. One home had a note to the SPCA that there was a large brown dog living under the porch. It is unbelieveable the amount of debris, confusion and clutter. Their world has just been overturned due to Hurricane Katrina. There wasn't one particular thing that was worse than another, just the fact that it encompassed so much. It's like it never stopped. It was so quiet, as some of the areas have just been deserted.

Here's some of the information that was shared today:
*About 80% of New Orleans was flooded by the storm. This totals 144 square miles, 7 times larger than Manhattan
*1,464 people died, 500 remain missing
*204,000-plus homes severly damaged
*60,0000 businesses (of 81,000 affected) have reopened
*1 million plus visitors came for Mardi Gras and Jazzfest
*Only 50% of the population has returned so far

I can't begin to share with you what New Orleans looks like today. I was here several years ago and it's just incredibly different. A JL member shared with us today that the people are just so "out of place" at home. They are just a little left of center still, not sure what to do or where to do it. Many of them just trying to get through each day. FEMA trailers are everywhere, in people's front yards or on streets, while people live in these and rebuild their homes. Several homes are just completely gone, only the stairs remaining. I will post my photos on my Ofoto site when I arrive home, since I can't figure out how to get them to you here.

I'm out of things to say tonight, other than it's just amazing. Tomorrow brings a whole other day. Dana & I are working to restore a restaurant for a 90-year old woman who apparently used to make the best fried chicken in town. Willie Mae's Scotch House in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans. Sarah will be working on Musicians Village, a Habitat for Humanity project largely publicized by Harry Connick, Jr. and when complete will consist of 81 Habitat constructed homes for displaced musicians. Nicole will continue as the project lead on a home of a woman who is 79 and battling Ovarian Cancer and was unable to complete the necessary repairs on her home.

Well, it's late and we're exhausted. We'll fill you all in tomorrow!

Until next time~All the best

Final Boarding Call

Okay-so you’ve all been waiting patiently to hear the news of our adventures in New Orleans. Well, here it goes, it’s Wednesday and today was day one of our trip. Let me set the stage for you a little bit. Sarah, Dana & I are traveling together. We each worked half the day so we are traveling late afternoon, into the evening, leaving of course, little time, if any for dinner during our connection in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Well, first things first, we have discovered a travel nazi in our group, I’ll let you guess who (and NO, it’s not me!) The Travel Nazi as she is now dubbed has got to know what time, where and for how long things are going to take place. She also needs to know EXACTLY how far it is from one gate to another and how many seconds it takes to get there.

We managed to make it TO Hartford with little issue, thanks to Tom who drove us to the airport. After arrival at the airport we checked in, and proceeded to security. It’s during this time that I realize my major purchase for the day (a $6.99 travel watch from K-mart) was left in the car…no I have no idea what time it is all week while I’m working-UGH!
As well, in the security line, we were told by the initial check-in man that any liquid needed to be stored in Ziploc bags…now, I haven’t been listening in detail in the news, but if you have explosives, what good is a plastic Ziploc bag? Anyway, he proceeded to tell us that we could obtain them (for free) in the gift shop…okay, let’s take a quiz…if they’re free, and you HAVE to have them, and the guy at the TABLE is telling you that you have to have one….WHY doesn’t he have them? We go to the gift store and get Ziploc bags…JEEEZ!!! We made it through security-you must have lotion in a Ziploc but once again, ??? why can you bring knitting needles…um, they have a point?!?!

Anyway-on the plane, no issues, make it to Charlotte, where we have 20 minutes to go from Concourse “C” to Concourse “E” to make our connection. One of us decides to grab a quick bite to go from Burger King, but this being the ‘deep south’, nothing is quick. The Travel Nazi is having a fit…we need to get to the next plane! We travel by people movers through the Atrium and arrive at our gate. Upon arrival near the gate, a nice older gentleman informs us that the plane to New Orleans just left. Now, Travel Nazi let her guard down for 15 minutes and the rest of the crew nearly misses the plane-she’s hating us right now! Ever so appropriately she says to the man “What the F…….”, after she promised no “F-Bombs” on this trip-so much for that! Fortunately for us, the gate agent came to our rescue, as they were holding the plane for US! How convenient we didn’t even have to wait in line!

No other travel issues, we’re here, ate a late dinner, had a drink….no more “F-Bombs” and tomorrow is another day!

Did ya guess who the Travel Nazi is yet???


ALSO---I have photos and can't seem to upload them to this site, I keep uploading and they're not here, can anyone help???

Until next time~All the best

A Broken Bed-A Rug & Sunday Football

Well, the title should peak your curiosity, but unfortunately it wasn't as fun as it could sound! There wasn't much to blog about over the weekend other than Sunday's events that I'm just having an opportunity to share, but alas, there wasn't much for today, so we'll still be caught up.

So...What does a broken bed, a rug and Sunday football have to do with anything? Well, they all involved Tom. I didn't watch a minute of Sunday football, so he gets credit for the whole thing~

Sunday mornings are only somewhat of a treat in the Torres household. Tom still has to get up and go to his stores to restock, but at least the alarm isn't going off at 3:15 a.m. on Sunday's, mostly it's around 6:00 or later, if it gets set. This Sunday was no exception, early up and restock and hopefully bread sales will be plentiful. Granted, TOM gets up...those of you who know me well, know that I value my ability to sleep in. I had a Junior League leadership training on Saturday, so Sunday was my sleep in day this week. It was raining, chilly and just a great day to stay in bed, watching tv-once I was awake.

Around 9:45 (although Tom questions the timing) Tom came home, very nicely, with steaming hot Dunkin Donuts coffee for each of us. For those of you not in New England..."AMERICA runs on Dunkin", but in Connecticut they're on EVERY corner and pretty much a staple for coffee drinkers. Anyway---I get my piping hot Vanilla Spice coffee, and decide I have to sit up now and watch tv, to drink my coffee and Tom comes around to his side of the bed to sit with me and watch tv...well, he sat on the bed and the wood side rail SPLIT. "CRRRRAAAACCCCKKKK" "SH__WHAT THE ____WAS THAT???" THAT, was so much for staying in bed..."Um, I think you broke the bed" I said, trying to hide my laughter, which I don't do well.

So~after a minute or two of standing around looking at each other, we decide we better look and see what damage was done to the bed. Apparently what happened, when he sat on the upper corner the weight hit the first of the three side to side supports for the mattress and part of the rail holding it cracked...I dunno, all I know is it needed to be fixed. I was hysterical laughing and Tom was devastated that his fat butt (which it's not, he's a marathon runner) broke the bed!

Well, we took the bed apart and decided if we (Tom) were going to reinforce it, we (Tom) may as well do all six sides (three rails) AND, since you're taking the bed apart...we've been talking about putting an area rug under the bed because the center pole in the middle beam that goes to the floor, slides on the hardwood floors. OKAY--Michelle, get dressed, go to Staples and buy a rug (we saw them there last week, didn't buy it!). Okay--what size...well, the bed is 4'0 wide (just for the record, no it's not, but we'll get to that) blah, blah, blah...get a 5 x 7. So--jammies off, sweats on...15 minutes to Staples, six minutes in the store to buy a rug, amazing when you know EXACTLY what you're looking for (I hate to shop like that!) 15 minutes home and viola, we have a rug.

Bring the rug upstairs, unroll it, put it under the frame, which is now 1/2 way back together, sorta....You guessed it, the rug is too SMALL! The 5 x 7 doesn't fit, because the bed is not 4'0 wide. Tom says-go get the other size, they also had 6 x 9...Yeah, NO...YOU told me to get the 5 x 7, YOU said the bed was 4'0 wide, YOU go get the other size. A small disagreement ensues, because Tom can't take anything back to a store, he would have kept this rug, rolled up in the closet before ever taking it back, IF he didn't know me. He just doesn't like to admit he made a mistake. MEN!

Mind you..it's now after 12:00 and Tom's supposed to be going to a friend's house at 1:30 for Sunday football. Sorry, I didn't break the bed, I bought what you told me to buy and I'm NOT going back to Staples, have fun, I'll be here when you get back with the right rug. (Y'all know what happened next, right?!)

Way to go TOM! have to say--I'm so proud ~ I knew he could make a return!!

He returned the rug, almost killed the cashier guy, but none the less, we have a 6 x 9 rug and no more 5 x 7 (and I have the credit slip to prove he returned it and it was credited back to my debit card-otherwise I'd have thought he hid it and bought a new one!) :-) Just kidding, honey!

So, he comes home with the new rug, finished tightening the screws in the frame, placed the rug and put the mattress & box spring back together (no more issues). My job was to make the bed, cuz you guessed it...now it's 1:30 and he's GOT TO GO! He was late for football and beer, but he finally made it.

Last night he came home at 8:00. I was beginning to wonder if he was coming home at all. I think he needed a couple of drinks!?! To top it off, he lost a $20 bet on the Dallas game. Needless to say, Tom had a great day! While he was gone, I accomplished a TON of stuff-organizing, cleaning closets-fun stuff!!

When we finally went to bed last night, I made him get in bed first, no problems, so far-so good!

And this is what A broken bed, a rug and Sunday football have to do with each other!

Until next time~All the best