Wednesday, October 31, 2012

My Connecticut Vacation

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Mom and I took a vacation together again in Connecticut this year.  Last year we took the New England bus tour from Hades but there was so much that we didn’t get to see on the tour that we wanted to go again and see what we wanted to see!
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Well, this was mostly what I wanted to see, so we headed out to the beach the first morning.  That was my reward for driving us in a rental car out of LaGuardia Airport in NYC!  I drove out of there at 11pm like I knew what I was doing!  Eight lanes of traffic going one way!  It was crazy (what was I thinking???).  But no one died in my efforts to get onto I-95 and into Connecticut!  We were honked at with wild abandon, but hey that is nothing!
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My shoes came off and I walked in the surf!!
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I just love the ocean…
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We drove past the little cottage where my parents started their marriage 55 years ago…it sits empty and strong right where it did when my parents lived there and where my older brother and I were born.
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Walked around the little cove area in Ledyard.  We saw the same man walking his German shepherd that we saw a year ago at this park!  Talk about coincidence!  We spoke to him and he remembered talking to mom about the store that used to be there when she lived there years ago.
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One of the oldest continuously operated inns in the country, The Griswold Inn (or the “Gris” as locals called it) opened its doors for business in 1776 and has been catering to yachtsmen and overland travelers ever since. It is situated in the historic hamlet of Essex which is nestled on the banks of the Connecticut River and that’s where we had our lunch.
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Another beach trip to Hammonasset State Park where yes, I played in the surf again but we were blessed to see this awesome sight…
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a complete rainbow circle around the sun!  Hard to see it all in the pics, but we could see the bottom portion too!  Incredible! 
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A trip to Mystic Seaport in Mystic followed by
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a visit to Mystic aquarium, where we met this guy, Juno, a 1200 pound Beluga whale who was quite charming!
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He thought we were ignoring him and he did this to get our attention.
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We petted a shark (OK, so it was small shark, but it was still a shark!) and a stingray,
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we were amazed by the jellyfish that are fluorescent, and
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Look! We found Nemo!!
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Retail therapy included a trip to IKEA (my first trip ever)
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And a jaunt up through Massachusetts into Vermont to go to the Vermont Country Store!
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I thought this moose head hat was perfect for me! The store was awesome and we made quite a haul!
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Maybe, just maybe we went to the beach again…
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The weather was great and we only had one rainy day when we drove to Vermont. The trees were beautiful colors too!
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We went to the USS Nautilus Submarine Museum on the New London Sub Base. 
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The Nautilus was the first nuclear submarine ever…came into service in the late 1950s. 
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We could walk onto the deck and even go underneath…
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We climbed down narrow stairs, walked down narrow paths, and scrambled through hatches that were quite smallish.  Somewhere along there I realized I couldn’t quite catch my breath and I felt like the walls were closing in, this was the only pic I got as I felt an uncontrollable urge to get the heck out of that tight space!  Whew!  I can’t imagine sleeping on the bunks in the picture.  These poor men would be submerged for up to 60 days.  I would have to be sedated! LOL!
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Another beautiful tree we stopped near to regroup and figure out where we were going and how to get there.  Thank goodness for the GPS on my iPhone!
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The stone walls are everywhere…lining the roadways and pastures. 
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Made a trip to Stonington to see this really neat lighthouse and enjoy this view…
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I even asked a complete stranger to take a pic of me by the ocean.
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It was so great to get to spend this much time with my mom all to myself…we laughed so much and had such a great time!  And by the way, I did not drive us back to the airport, we dropped our car off in the town where our motel was and we took a cab into the airport!  That was so much easier!
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Ginormous Bulletin Board Makeover

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This bulletin board is bigger than my desk at work…I’m pretty sure it came over on the Mayflower or the Nina or the Penta (I think those are the names of those three Pilgrim ships).  And you can see that it is stained and faded and had lots of holes and staples stuck in it.

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After getting permission of course, I decided to spruce it up a bit as our offices were moving to a new building while I was gone on vacation.  I taped off the wooden frame and

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used a painting pad (trust me I used a sponge brush at first and it just didn’t get enough coverage) to slather on the paint and this baby took almost a full quart of Clark and Kensington paint with primer (a freebie from one of their promo offers at Westlakes).  The corkboard just soaked it up.

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This is the difference between the first coat on the left and the second coat on the right.  It was pretty plain, so I decided to add something to spiff it up.  I had an old USA folded map and cut it in strips.

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I used Mod Podge to attach the map…I love it!! This pic was taken in the old office. 

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Here it is in my new office.  Lots of space on it and it looks great!  Plus it helps cover that mauve wall!

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I am linking to these great parties!

 

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The last two weeks!

I have had quite a memorable last few weeks!  I went on vacation to Connecticut, yep, got out in the knick of time just before Sandy hit (by five days)!

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I plan to bore you with a lot of pics in another post about my vacation, but for now, just wanted to let you know that I am still here, even though I have not posted for a few weeks!  I have several projects that I have been working on so please stay tuned!

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I came home Thursday to a hideously trashed house thanks to my son, so I dealt with that with a lot of gnashing of teeth (mine mostly).  Sure was a rude homecoming!

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I had a dentist appointment the day after I got back and have three cavities (WHAT??) and I also went to a retirement party for a dear friend/coworker. 

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And the next day which was Saturday I had a new roof put on my house (we had a bad hail storm with baseball sized hail a month or so ago) which ended up being a disaster.  The shingles were not the right color (and actually one section on the front of the roof were not even the same color as the rest of the roof—why was I the first one to notice that??) which I can live with but the edges of the roof were very uneven and had the flashing showing so that it was pretty much a guarantee that the roof would leak the first time it rained.

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A satellite dish was broken, tons of nails left laying in the yard and on the deck.  There have been many heated conversations about this roof with the job supervisor and the partner in the company and unfortunately it is still not resolved. 

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Sunday brought a break up with a guy I have been seeing this summer (I’ll just say we were traveling to two different destinations to keep this in line with the vacation theme of this post!) (I will sure miss the Harley rides) and well, then it’s time to go back to work on Monday. While I was gone on vacation, our offices moved to a new building so yesterday there was unpacking to do and organizing and decorating a bit, all the while answering phone calls and handling every day things.

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So anyway, I am exhausted, but truly had the best vacation ever!! It was an honor to spend so much time with my mom!  I don’t think I will take another one any time soon though!  This next week I plan to lay low and get some crafting for Christmas started and just be sorta boring!

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Saturday, October 20, 2012

A trip to the farm…

This is going to be a post of pictures mostly…lots of good times when I was at my mom’s house last weekend…
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Feeding the mama-to-be donkey.
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Checking out the six piglets and their cranky mama!
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When mama is done, she is done!
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The cows thought they were going to get fed!
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I will always consider this Dad’s flagpole…always reminds me of him when I see it!
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Mom’s morning glory vines…
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Love the blue color!
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Mom’s cute little garden with the gate to keep out the critters!
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Rachel and Callie…best friends!