KateP's musings

      My trip home yesterday wasn’t as uneventful as I made it out to be. I was meant to head to Cuomo Bridge, but I stayed on 78 East and ended up in NYC on 95 instead.    In summary, I ultimately took an alternative route to reach FDR.    I am unable to specify my location.   The whole situation was stressful at best.   I was exhausted by the time I got home. I really didn’t do much yesterday.   I had a visit with Don, and Laura’s visit was close to 6 and stayed until 7.   The visit went smoothly, and I was in bed by 8 o'clock. It took some time for me to fall asleep.    My leg cramps came back and took some time to go away.    After that I was able to sleep This morning, I got up at 5:30 fed Sky and did minimal cleaning.   I have completed showering and getting dressed.    I intended to take a walk and visit Planet Fitness; however, I am currently not feeling well.   Again.  ...

        I left my brother's at 10am.    I shared a final breakfast coffee with Janis before she departed for work.    Spent time with Jim and packed the car and headed out.   My hope is tcako return next month for a weekend visit.   The morning was beautiful.    I was aware that I had a limited window of time before the afternoon commute commenced.   Traffic proceeded smoothly.    I got home a little after 3.   I had to stop a few times. Upon returning home, I unpacked my suitcase, organized my living space, and spent time engaging with Sky.     I was also expecting Laura from OS to stop by on her way back home.     My last day in Allentown was very nice.   Once the weather cleared up and we all had our naps.   Janis completed some cleaning and knitting tasks while Jim and I went for a walk and took the car to the car wash.    The place did a beautiful...

    Our plans for yesterday afternoon changed by lunchtime.  Janis came home from WW at that point and we decided to have a snack (unhealthy lunch LOL) and decided to go to the Allentown Art Museum ,  Where there were two exhibitions of interest The Art for Church and Home that included a tiffany window that had a small light show .  There was a quilt exhibition that we never made it to.  Both Jim and my energy level were waning.  We decided to come home.  Neither of us went to the gym or washed the car yet.    We stopped to get iced coffee and then returned home to have a mid-afternoon snack.   We made plans for dinner.  Left over lasagna and salad.  Janis and I made plans to go to Aldi to get salad fixing after we had some quiet time.  It was also just about then the so called “storm” was starting.  It was a light rain but no Thunder or lightening. Sunshine was short-lived, as clouds came back by 7...

  So today by  katiegirl06460 July 3, 2024 Hey everyone .. another Random post. Today starts the busy holiday travel.  I hope that if you do that, you are safe and enjoy.  Personally, I think many left earlier around here. So my questions are: Will you travel? Where do you go?  Camping? Friends houses’ resorts beaches?   Do you work on Friday?  I am .   Next year it lands on Friday  so I may take Thursday off

  Special activities:   Since Jim invited me to go to the firing range with the both of them I have been trying to find out where the local gun ranges are (without asking them).   There are at least three or four in Lehigh County.   Two are in a town called Coplay and the other is in Emmaus.   The other one is in Easton and I couldn’t imagine us going all the way back there.   All though during my research most of them have about the same amount of drive time for each of them.      It turned out that activity got put aside.   Janis and her sister Sharon made plans with a dear friend of theirs to meet up for Coffee this morning and ended up shopping.   This allowed me to sleep in a little bit longer and hang out in the room until my “breakfast” with Jim.   Jim had to work in the local campaign office for a couple of hours that morning so we met at the Panera bread restaurant near his house.   We each got something ...

  On the road by 9:30.   The cats are fed and watered and medicated.  Liz will handle tonight, tomorrow and Sunday morning.  This will be the first weekend away in two years (not counting Easter 2020). For the last week I have been mulling over when was the best time to leave by using the google maps and scheduling and it gave a pretty good indication when I arrive if I leave before ten. My hope is to take the normal route I usually take to visit PA.  That includes the Merritt to 278 over the Cuomo Bridge (formerly Tappan Zee).  Then 78 to where my hostess is.  I took a brief stop there to see what it looked like then headed to Jim’s.  I was really early.   Admittedly I was concerned that Google was going to insist that I go to GW Bridge but it didn’t and took me over the route I remember over the years and once I was on on 287 I was fine.  I was surprised to find an additional electronic toll booth had been built and wasn’t ex...

I was expecting the weather to be cloudy, cold and very windy and it was as the day progressed.   It started off sunny and 45 degrees.   It was pretty much the same in Killingworth.   This is probably a good thing.   I have heard from friends across the country.   They did get snow and it ranged from 8 in to a total foot.   I baled on the gym in the morning despite the fact I saw A on FB.   So he knows I was online and despite the fact I promised I can’t.   I have things I wanted to do before the day got away.   So I met with A this week at our normal time.   Tuesday I was very tired and we talked about.   He reminded me that I am pre-Diabetic (something I may not have shared with the Doctors this week) and the reason I was tired because of the sugar and breads I have been having.   He suggested that I can no longer have desserts or sweets of any kind.   No breads either and this entire are going to be tough A did ...

Today I head home. My flight is at 12:20 so we are leaving here around 10 for the airport.  I will bring home with me the memories of the last two weeks of the sights,sounds, people. I have crossed paths with. I hope to come back again next year and see the things we missed.  Like the Hoover dam and maybe find better hikes. I also go home with a renewed sense of purpose to maybe change some things in my life that need adjustment. I love the fact my boarding pass is now on my phone.  I thought I would need to have a special app for it and I don't. I understand I will be heading home to cold and rain.  A Nor'easter is heading off the coast of CT. Hopefully this will not adversely affect the drive home from the airport.  I am pretty sure I will be ready to see my cats. I haven't been away from them this long before.  It definitely be funny to see what happens.

Today is my last full day of my adventures in Las Vegas.  I wasn't expecting much except to prepare for the flight home tomorrow. That changed after last night's meet up. We were invited to another game Mexican train at Einstein bagels at 1.  It will be in likelihood our dinner as well. We will be leaving here around 10 and have to get a check up for one of the cars first.   Then tonight last minute laundry. I will also print out the boarding pass and then bed for me.  I haven't been sleeping all that well lately. As a matter of fact I wrote this at 4 in the morning.  I had an alarm set for seven so I could get my walk in before the day started. I woke up late. I received my schedule for Bingo this month.  I am doing Bingo at 10:30 in the morning on the 7th and my regular time on Easter Sunday.  Which means whatever plans I did have got boggled. It was about that time I also got my appointment confirmations for this week for the infusion a...

Sunday was beautiful and chilly.  It's sunny and watching the planes making their final approach while on my morning walk was very cool.  The walk was about a mile and half and met some other residents that were on their walk. This walk helped me get to 3K steps already. Today we are headed up to the Hoover Dam and explore it.  I was looking forward to seeing this awesome piece of history.  That is until we couldn't take the tour until I got rid of the trail mix I just bought in their gift shop.  When they say no food they mean no food! Even if its in prepackaged and unopened you can not take it in the tour with you.  They said we could take it back to our car but we parked on the Arizona side of the dam. It was a little far and time consuming so we ended up just walking back to the car and heading out to lunch. We headed to Fox  Smokehouse BBQ it is in Boulder City NV and it was in a small shopping mall (I think it was the only building actua...

Today we went  back to Lake Mead. We stopped at the visitors center.  There was video narrated by Actress Stockard Channing about the lake and its importance to the ecosystem. We were looking for a restaurant and was in the marina.  We found one and had lunch. We also did some people watching. We decided to head back to the house to relax before going to Primm NV.  We are going to listen to a band there. It is at 7:30. The invite came from a couple we met at a meetup last week.  The husband is friends with a band member and wanted us to join them at the Buffalo Bills casino and hotel .  We Left by 6:00 When we got home I did some laundry and made some calls and sent some emails.  All trying to relax for a bit. Also did some organization on the computer. The place is expansive and has a monorail between BB and whiskey Pete and Primm casino resort.  Not overly crowded for a Saturday night. The band we went to see is called Sin City ...

Well I can actually say I was at the Vegas Strip.  We got there just about midday and spent four hours there.  M jokingly says we spent nearly an hour in traffic just to find a free self parking garage.  The traffic on the strip is always “bad”. But the views and the activity sure makes up for it.   We finally found a parking space in the Treasure Island casino and hotel garage and from there headed out to find lunch and to head out to the Flamingo HOtel Habitat.  We looked around in the TI for lunch first but didn’t see anything so we had lunch at the Carnegie Deli and Restaurant in the Mirage.  Where i had the biggest Reuben Sandwich known to man.  To me it was also the most expensive. It was open-faced and almost $25.  Include the drink and tip it came to $31 and change. I couldn’t finish it so I brought what was left home.  It was good I was walking the strip. My entire body felt it. I think the Mirage also has a Secret Garden a...

Today we are heading to Springs Preserve  It is a huge place owned and operated by the Las Vegas Water District to provide a place of fun and education in way to live with the desert.  There are lots to do. We didn’t walk the outdoor trails but there are plenty of things to do inside to learn about sustainability and it was quite interesting.  They also have a little town that was Las Vegas before it became the spectacle it is today. We were there for hours. Later on in the day we headed to the Rio for a presentation on Holocaust Survivors and we got to meet families and survivors of the Holocaust..  M’s Parents were survivors. There was a dinner we didn’t know about but we got to sit with children from local schools that were learning about it earlier in the day.  We had dinner prior to it. It was very interesting. We got home by 8 and relaxed.  I didn’t make it to my 12000 steps but I do know I did a lot of walking and my legs and lower body we...

Haven't finished yesterday’s log yet but today was a semi quiet day.  We had to pick up M’s car from the shop and then we headed to a mall so I could get my steps in.   We did about 2000 there and had lunch at Rubio’s Mexican Restaurant and I had their California Bowl.  That had rice and beans and guacamole and shrimp. Around 2 we headed to South Park Casino and hotel and went to the movies.  First I had to get one of those cards that gives you discounts and such. We went to the Cinemark and get tickets to see Captain Marvel.  The price of the tickets came to $12 for all three of us. As in all theaters you had various promos, trailers, and ads for everything but there are number of movies I definitely want to see over the next several months.  I won’t spoil it for any of you who haven’t seen the movie but I will say there are some great surprises and explains a few things about different characters. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards we ambled ...

It's 12:30 am Tuesday.  I am starting my second week in LV.  We just got home from an evening at the Freemont Street experience.  It was amazing. We parked and started our night El Cortez.  We walked through part of the experience to get to Tony Roma's for dinner.  I had the Chicken Mojo. There was so much I had to bring it home. We spent the next several hours split up.  M did some gambling and R and I enjoyed the music and the walk and window shopping. The Light show was awesome and going every hour on the hour.  The Zip line users were over head and I am telling you I would be screaming the entire time! We made a quick stop at the store for my fruit and yogurt and a card for my co worker Michele who had lost her sister after a short illness. We made it to the Exploration Peak Park...we did the mile long loop around the park.  I was slightly disappointed because we couldn’t really find the start of the other trails that really tur...

The Lion Habitat is only opened a short time daily.  It used to be in the middle of nowhere in Henderson but as is everywhere else developers are building more and more communities around it.  We got there a little before 11 when it opened and there was already a line of cars. There is small parking area and then you enter the ticket office that looks like construction trailer and hopefully has AC during the hotter months.  Before we could purchase tickets we had to sign waivers of responsibility. In it we also to tell them if we belonged to any animal rights organizations which only tells they have had their issues with them.   Once the tickets were bought we all met at the emu cage and were taken on a tour by a really awesome tour guide who explained everything between being trained and the care of these animals.  We saw about seven or eight lions some who were directly related to the original MGM Lion (yeah him Leo). There are also birds of all kind...

Today was all about Yard Sales and Meetups.  This morning the large “neighborhood” my friends live in are having a huge Yard Sale and it's not a rinky dink activity this development is a rather large one at that (at least I think so).  We drove around to the indicated places on a map looked and couldn’t find anything worth buying that is.     We then headed back towards the house making a few stops to a small park and walked around.  It was about half a mile and called the Rose Park. We then headed towards the Silverton with the idea in mind ot have lunch.  We tried going to Cracker Barrel that was near the Silverton but there was an hour long wait.  So we tried one of the restaurants in the Silverton. It was the Sundance Grill. My friends had a hamburger and calamari while Surf and turf.  Unfortunately part of the turf was fried shrimp. So I had my asparagus, and salad. The whole meal came to $59 (including tip). It was fun and o...

The day started off pretty cool at 48 degrees and very sunny.  I was looking forward to the temperatures going into the 70’s for the hike into Red Rock Canyon. Before we went though  we had to do some errands in the same area.  They wanted to meet with their attorney for stuff.  So I kept myself busy. I went to a coffee shop called Leone  Cafe and had breakfast. It was quite a busy place and I got an egg white Asparagus Omelet with a salad. I thought it was strange to include a salad with breakfast but what do I know the other options were things I couldn’t have.  I had coffee with it. I sat out on the patio and did some people watching. The meal came to $12. 99. It was still a bit cool but nice. IF you need to go to a public restroom you will need to go down the street into another building.  Where the Lawyer’s office is located. I learned that this Business center that included a wide range of stores and restaurants and offices all had ...

It is early in the morning I haven’t gone walking yet.  Decided to sleep in longer after going to bed so late yesterday.  Today we went to a Purim Part y in Summerlin.  It was held at Community Center and with People that Mama met and apparently knew through other associations it was so funny.  There was some refreshments and (and I ate the fresh fruit and had coffee). Afterwards we we went to a Bagel cafe .  I had ordered tossed Salad and huge bowl of chili.  The chili filled me up so I couldn’t eat the salad but saved it for a dinner tonight.  It was delicious and the restaurant was great and locate in one of the many Shopping centers all around the city and area.   Afterwards we headed to the Summerlin Cottonwood Canyon trail which is located near a senior Center near another shopping center.  There are plenty of shopping centers every 1000 feet or so. We only did a half mile walk on it but it is supposedly much longer. Very good fo...