A Little Knowledge is Dangerous

I have to admit, I am just about convinced that Mac is the way to go! The fact that there is no ready help available from Microsoft other than that damn dancing paper clip, makes me think there must be a better/easier way! I cannot believe that I have spent hours as well as at least 50 pages of labels trying to print out the labels for Matt and Rachel's celebration here in Stamford! I used the program for the Save The Date cards...no problem. This time it was an utter nightmare! First I spent time with Amy with her walking me through the process only to find out that the program was reprinting some labels and not including others! My friend Hillary came over after Mah Jongg today to walk me trough it. Would you believe it took both of us and another 6 or so wasted pages of labels to get it to happen! So, maybe having someone do calligraphy might have been an answer! Considering the money I spent on wasted labels I would have been able to afford at least 10 hand done labels! So, the lesson to be learned here...don't think because you have done something once on the computer it will be easy the second time. What I better do is put an announcement on a local Yahoo site telling of my talent before I forget how to do it again!

Strong Women

I'm sitting here thinking about the women I know and their strength of character. What brought this to mind was reading Amy's blog and reading her thoughts about Christina Applegate. At first I thought, yes, Christina is strong because she's an actress; perhaps she is just acting. Then I started to think of the conversations I have had over the past few weeks with people, women, who are going through extraordinary experiences. Barbara, a long lost friend from growing up, lost her husband a few weeks ago; he wasn't in great health but he certainly wasn't sick enough to suspect that he would die. Then there is Linda, her daughter was a dog walker, 33 years old, lived in San Francisco. Robyn took some dogs for a walk, fell down/passed out, several hours later, dead. Robyn practiced yoga, ate healthy, who would think this would happen. Linda is picking up the pieces, going back to her yoga and living her life. Marcia, has nursed her husband through cancer for the past year. Jeffrey had just retired and their plan was to do some traveling; within months he was diagnosed with cancer. Marcia is a community activist, she is picking up the pieces and continuing her life. How do these people do it? When I spoke to Barbara today she summed it all up..."Life is not easy; this is what its about, now I have to go through this alone and come out the other side. I know it will be tough but I have to do it myself, you can't help me." Wow, talk about strong! In my heart of hearts I pray I will never have to go through these things but who am I kidding...this IS life and you've got to suck it up and go on with it or you can spend the rest of your life in your bed with the covers over your head!

Interesting Summer Salads

Well, its that time of year when the produce is so succulent you don't know what to eat first! I have been doing some different additions to the dinner salads that have been wonderful. First, fresh figs seem to be in season. I have added them with goat cheese to the salad along with fresh herbs: basil, tarragon, thyme and drizzled with a bit of raspberry vinegar! Very yummy! Then I remembered last year I made a salad of watermellon, goat cheese and fresh basil with a little balsamic vinegar delicious! Have also been into summer squash. I have been sauteing onions in a little olive oil adding the squash, cookling until tender. Than add fresh basil or thyme. To die for! Anyway, those are the food thoughts of the day! More to come!

Down to one Kindle

Do you know what a Kindle is? Well, its an electronic device that you download books to. it is sold by Amazon and I thought it would be the perfect thing to take on vacation and to also remove the clutter of books to be read or already read on my night table. So, after much thought I decided to get one (not inexpensive so had to think it through!). Well, this is a remarkable device. It has the capacity to hold up to 20 books; no book costs more than $9.99 and you can download from where every you are; well, except for my house. The technology is based on the same waves as cell phone coverage. That should have give me my first hint since the cell phone coverage here is limited! Well, after many attempts I could not get online; customer service said according to their info I should be fine. Well, they decided it must be the Kindle they sent me so they sent a new one...same problem. Well this happened a second time; new Kindle arrived and, you guessed it, still didn't work. Now I'm at the point where I'm thinking I may go into competition with Amazon and sell my own Kindles. As a matter of fact I have named the 3rd one Number 3 as this is starting to get funny. Well, it seems that this one (#3) has the ability to work, sometimes. So now Amazon wants the others back! They are no fun! So much for my latest business! Anyway, I suggest going online and checking it out. It is a wonderful convenience although you do have to get used to not turning pages!

Long Weekend Away

We are just back from a fabulous weekend in the Berkshires! You know you go away for a relaxing weekend and you feel like you've been away for a week. We are so fortunate to have friends with a weekend/summer/winter home in Lenox, Mass, home of Tanglewood. How lucky are we to be invited up there at least once each summer and again in the winter. Have to admit I prefer the warm weather activities to the cold. We went to Tanglewood both Friday night and Saturday night. Friday night was Joshua Bell, violinist; Saturday night was Renee Flemming. What an audience Tanglewood has. They clap for just about anything! If I were an artist Tanglewood would be the venue I would like to perform for. At the end of the evenings my hands were sore from clapping! Well, to sum it all up this was a weekend of culture, good food, and, above all, great company...or was that us, the good company!