KateP's musings

It is another beautiful day and Mom and I will be leaving in awhile for Liz and Nelson’s for another picnic. We got the invitation earlier in the day. Last night was a blast. There were a lot of people. Many I didn’t recognize (aka know) but some I met. One man that I was talking to was 98 and very with it and apparently a Superintendent of schools in the early 70’s. He knew Mom through the HRD board she was active on many years ago. The food was out of this world. They had appetizers (chips and dips, vegetable platters) and for the main course they had pizza. Apparently a catering service out of new haven does mobile pizza. They had a brick oven pizza and they made all kinds. The chefs were 4 guys all from Pepe’s and Bar Pizza. It was a lot of fun. There were plenty of desserts. We left a little after 9 (the longest we have ever stayed at any party). When we got home I took a bath and got into my pajamas and watched TV. I couldn’t believe it when I realized it was Midni...

Hey everyone hope you are enjoying this beautiful day. Mine didn’t start off too well. I woke up with a Migraine and I ended up getting sick a few times. I did get to the nursing home to drop off magazines Mom wanted there but I spoke to Angie and told her I couldn’t stay. She understood and told me to get better. When I got home I went to lie down and was able to fall asleep until 12:30 or so. I was feeling better but it did come back again a little later on. Mom was starting to bake another pie and we got a call that Mike and Tessa invited us to Ben Blake’s home for a picnic. We are leaving here in about 45 minutes or so. Not much else to tell you. Last night Mom and I had spaghetti for dinner and watched TV. I was in bed by 9:30. I am going to move some emails while waiting for Mom to get changed. Have a great night and we will see you later.

It is an absolutely beautiful day. The sun is shining and the temps are at 73 and it is not even noon yet. I just read where the pollen count is very high for this area and yet I don’t feel sick or stuffed or sneezing. It is supposed to be partly cloudy (or partly sunny depending on your view) and it looks like we are supposed to get some thunderstorms around 6 or 7 tonight and rain for the rest of the night. I tried to get up very early this morning to start the whole seasonal wardrobe change but I stayed in bed until 8 and then started on the laundry. I have all the winter and spring clothes on the bed in the spare room and as soon as the rest of it is done the other stuff will come down. Mom is out at a flooring place where my cousin Chris works to window shop for new floors. She is thinking about replacing the floor in the kitchen (its 40 plus years old) and she is contemplating whether or not to get it done. Mom has invited our friends Mike and Tess for a cook out tomorrow aft...

Well the weekend has officially begun. I worked until 4 and then went out to dinner with the Rubinstein’s to the Outback Restaurant on Marshall Hill Road in Orange. We started off with the Blooming Onion and sodas and bread, and I had creamed onion soup. I have had other onion soups but not like this. I plan on having it again some time. I had steak and shrimp, while Mike had a half of crab legs while Roberta had steak medallions and vegetables. I had vegetables with mine and of course we had dessert. For the next hour and half we caught up with our family and work. Unfortunately Roberta got into a slight accident. She was turning a corner in Trumbull and didn’t see a pole. It caused her car door some real damage. They have a wedding to go to sometime soon and then will have a farewell party sometime in June for their daughter and son in law. We had a lot of fun and laughed and joked all the way home. When I got home Mom was in the back room watching Washington Week on PBS. ...

Wow that storm that came through the state very early this morning was incredible. The lightening was pretty cool and the thunder started much later and then the rain came. It played havoc on my ankle for most of the night. It still is a little now. According to the radio several areas have power outages and downed wires. Mom went to bed before midnight after spending the day shopping and cleaning. She wants me to put the light shade up in the bathroom and put the screen door up as well. I suggested that Dave come and help because her back was going to give out. I called Dave and asked him and he said he would be there by 5. He had just flown in from a flight and was relaxing before heading back to CT. Mom had a bit of news for me. She either talked with Bob or spent time with him and they talked about the kids and the weekend. First John is going to try out of for Special forces again and if he doesn’t make it this time he will be going to Korea. Diane was in town for the l...

Well it looks like I am making definite plans for Dinner and a movie with Dave on Thursday. I got an email confirmation either late last night or early this morning from him. I suspect we are going to salute Restaurant on Old Gate Lane in Milford. I have been hearing mixed reviews of this of late. I think this is probably the opportunity for us to discuss the trip to Niagara Falls. He tells me that air fair wouldn’t have been included in the prices I saw. The trip I saw was for 9 days. There is one in the fall and then again in early summer. I would need time to get my passport. On Friday will be my dinner “date” with the Rubinstein’s. As I said last night we will go to Outback or perhaps The Texas Road house or even Savin Rock Roasting Company. These so far are my favorite steakhouses in the area. There was an accident in New Haven this morning that tied up traffic from Exit 42 on into the city. I was able to get off at Kimberly Avenue and go through that part of New Haven....

I heard this bright and early this morning on the way to work. There are seven months until Christmas Day. Yeah no pressure there! I expect to be good at finances and able to get things done early. Every year I plan on making the Christmas card list early and send them out early. It usually doesn’t work out that way. I hope it will be different this year. Sunday was quite a busy day. I had bingo and as I expected none of the girls or guy came because of the prom the night before. Natalie was there but still not completely recovered from her back. I didn’t go to church so I went over and spent the next two hours with Liz and the kids. They are just arrived before I did and was having “lunch”. We played outside with badminton and letters and looking at new clothes Liz had bought for them. After that I met Dave downtown and we went to the Bob Cook Memorial race. Desiree Fontaine from Channel 8 traffic was the MC and was very nice. Music was provided by Rumrunners. We regist...

It happened again. I woke up around 2 and haven’t been able to get back to sleep yet. It happened yesterday too. Of course it didn’t help to get the Charlie horse either but that went away by mid afternoon. I went to bed last night before 9 so that’s probably the reason why I woke up so early. I have been surfing the web by going to the forums and emails and stuff. I even was watching TV. I was not really successful there. I probably will fall asleep until the alarm goes off (I have it set for 6:30) but I don’t know what will happen. I have a really long day a head of me. I have the bingo, church, the cancer walk, and then dinner with Dave and then the meeting with the woman’s club. I probably should do some laundry but I don’t feel like it. I did manage to fall back to sleep but when the alarm went off I stayed in bed until 7. I went back to surfing the net and then started getting ready for Bingo. I could hear Mom getting up and going to have her coffee and paper. It is no...

It is afternoon now and I have been home from work bout 20 minutes. Mom was out back watching the Democratic State Convention in Hartford. I told her that our friend CT Bob ( http://ctbob.blogspot.com/ ) wrote about last night’s festivities in his blog. I will be reading it later. I haven’t gotten a call from Milford Delegates to attend so I don’t think I will be there this year. Mom seems to think it’s too late. Work went well. I am not sure just how many of us were there probably 8 or 10 at our end and more towards registration. I did get online and checked out my favorites and even checked some blogs. I have to say I didn’t have any problems getting into work or finding a spot but it was clear in some areas of the city that commencement weekend was in full swing. People were walking around there were more cars around in one section then there were in others. Well it is almost 5:30. I have been home since a little after 4 from the salon where I watched a young girl get read...

Traffic was a little heavy this morning and I thought I was going to rear end a couple of cars in front of me. When I get to the garage one woman walked down the ramp again. That just inflames me to no end. Don’t they get it they could cause accidents this way? This morning was the long term breakfast in the board room and is customary when there is leftovers to have the rest of the staff participate afterwards. Today is was no different. I had a couple of pancakes and a serving of home-fries (the red potato type). It was good. Then again I don’t not like food…. I went for a late lunch and walked to the bank. It was absolutely beautiful. I was definitely over dressed with my long sleeves but as you know doctor says need coverage. There were a lot of people out enjoying the day as well. I spent the afternoon opening the mail and readdressing stuff that needed to go to the doctors. I did the readdress mail until 5:30 when I ran out of inter-office envelopes. I decided I woul...

There were a lot of things going on today. They were work, Political, Family, and health stuff all through out the day. First thing this morning those of us who use the garages and parking lots were sent an email in regards to Monday’s Commencement. That’s right Yale University is holding commencement on Monday. Anyway, they are expecting 1,200 additional visitors for that day. So The university is asking those of us who having parking spaces either in the garages or parking lots find alternative solutions and leave spaces for a first come first serve for the guests. Some if not all are saying screw that. I just hope I have a spot come Monday morning. Starting today my shared expenses with Mom went up. We discussed it earlier in the week and so today it went into effect. We discussed earlier in the week that 30% of my income should be going to the shared expenses. I am willing to do this. I just have to remember that from now on. I also paid her the money from the car repai...

As many of you who have been following my blog might know I talked about doing my taxes and completing them by April 13, 2010. The state taxes were mailed on the 15th. On line there was a message it would be six or seven weeks before I would get the state taxes. As it is the 19th right now I am wondering if I need to be worried. I have been checking my account ever other day (don’t want to be anal about it) and there has not been anything. One of the thoughts I briefly entertained was maybe I will be audited? Work went by quickly. I was able to get all the daily mail done and made progress with the readdress mail. Despite the fact I found a pile or two of Authorizations on my desk. OT was pretty funny. Joanie and I got really silly over a joke we told each other. Mom was home and in her pajamas when I got home. She had been at a meeting for few hours today and had only been home a short time. She put the eggplant she prepared last night in the oven for our dinner. While w...

The Birthday lunch turned into a birthday breakfast. It had been decided we would order from Corner Deli anything we wanted. I decided that I would go to the bank when it opened. I left there at 9 and was back at 9:30. I ordered pancakes. It came to about $5 and change and donated money for LG’s meal. She was pleased but she was still playing games with people. We had a visit from Gayle and she looked wonderful. She visitied with us for about half hour and told us what was happening and that she would be returning part time for a while. She is coming back on Monday. We also discovered we will not be getting a pay stub anymore. HR sent out an email today that we can manage and see our stub online but we will not be getting a paper stub. It doesn’t bother me I just usually shred them. There are others who feel differently though. I stayed until six to catch up on mail work and then went home. Mom was home and watching TV and cooking chicken. She reminded me that Bulk Pick up was going to...

When I got into work today I was fine. I was in good spirits and ready to start the day. I was all set to do the campus mail tally until I knocked over my collection of used staples all over my key board!!!! I had to clear out the key board and use the canned air. I don’t think it took long to do it but it felt like it. I get a call from the ITS –mail room complaining about the manual we sent out (well actually Maria R and her daughter did last Friday). They apparently didn’t have a “mail code”. (They were actually directories to find Drs) The guy was absolutely obnoxious. I had to yell at him to let me finish a sentence. I told him I would have Maria R call him back-I couldn’t find her number. I had to call Maria and leave a message with his name and number. I would later find out an email discussion was being held between Sally T and her about the directories. Now there are 8 bins with that crap in my office-again. This definitely put a damper on my day but one thing t...

It is almost 6 pm on a beautiful Sunday evening. Mom and I just finished having our dinner and in a while we will be going to a friends house (Beverly Striet-Kafalas’s) to stuff envelopes (a traditional part of campaign work). As you might recall last Tuesday was her nomination convention. I don’t know how long we will be there but I don’t think we will be there for very long. Earlier today I received emails from both Rich S (Town Committee Chair) and Phil (District Chair) about this weeks meeting. This month’s Regular Town Committee will not be held because of the Convention that will be held on Thursday. That will be the nomination meetings (or re-nominations) of State Representatives of 119th, 118th, and of course our Registrar’s office. Mom will be doing the nomination speech for that one. That convention will be held at City Hall. Phil asked me to send out the DTC minutes from Claire C (DTC Secretary) to the rest of the 4th District. Mom has suggested in the past for me to...

Consumer Reports came out with this report for their June edition. When I spoke to a few of my fellow facebook mates they agreed some of it is common sense. For years people have said “don’t put your full birth date anywhere online”. However, I am not sure I agree with some of the other suggestions like the one where it says to have friends only. What if you want someone you haven’t seen in years and wanted to restart with them again maybe have them contact you through the facebook. There was another article regarding facebook “etiquette” if you will. For example don’t post private messages to people via their walls. If you have their emails then email them. That makes sense. I may have to go through all the sites I frequent and update my contact info. It is amazing and sometimes scary to think how all this could come back and bite you in the ass. The article that I mentioned first was to prevent identity theft. Okay updated my profile for that. Although there are others ...

The creative writing contest reception was held at the First Baptist Church in Milford tonight. I arrived a little after 6 and Telka and several of the girls from the girls club and Donna and Jolyn were there. I met Jolyn’s 82 year old Husband Judge and he was just so nice. I had the cream puffs and Donna put them in an aluminum tray. There were assortments of treats there. I avoided the chips and crackers but had plenty of sweets. The winners and their families and friends started arriving after 6:30. Among them were Alberta Jagoe and her family. She even was greeted by Telka in her opening remarks. Alberta’s Granddaughter was one of the winners. There were at least 20 winners and they all brought up to seven people to watch them. The whole ceremony lasted about an hour. There were pictures and chatting going on for brief time. We cleared out the place and then I left around 8 to go feed Junior. All in all we had a good time and turnout. On the way home I stopped and fed Ju...

It looks like Mom is going to get the house painted. At least indoors she wants to have painted. She had been entertaining the thought for a while and I guess is moving along. She wants to take each room at a time and start in the blue room. I think she also wants to do it all in white. I am not sure what to expect on that one. It will take a long time and I am not sure if we are doing it ourselves or someone will do it for us. Either way I am going to have clean this room up again and perhaps throw stuff out again. I have to say I am not really feeling well. This morning it started but it went away for a bit after I had several golden Oreos. Late in the afternoon and after lunch I started feeling bad again. I sent an email to Telka to let her know I wouldn’t be coming to the meeting. AT lunch time I went to the bank so that I could pay my IOU at Paula’s and get gas later. It was really cold and rainy. I had to throw my umbrella away because it was really getting destroyed...

This will be another brief entry as it is getting late and I am getting tired. Despite waking up at 4:30 in the morning from a very weird dream (I remember it but it’s too weird for me to even write it) and staying awake until I finally had to get up and get ready for the day. For the second day in a row it was cold maybe in the high forties and never got out of the low fifties all day. I stayed inside and worked and got everything on the daily list done. I am still working on the readdress mail and that will be on going. Today was John L's last day at YMG/Finance office. There is much speculation as to why he was let go. Some say he was too nice and it is budgetary cuts. I think it was a bit of both. I left at 4 pm today in order to get the cat fed and to be ready for the convention tonight. I fed the cat and was home a little after 4:30. I went to visit all my 4 legged god children around the neighborhood. It was fun playing with the Dalmatians and chatting with Chris. After a wh...

Today was so cold and windy. I just ran out of the house to feed Junior and go to work and I wish I had brought my jacket. I never went out until it was time for my session with Debra. Work went well almost everything got done just have to finish the 300 + bad addresses which I will do tomorrow. Mom went to Rosa DeLauro’s convention and gave a nominating speech and she was pleased with it.

Good Evening! Happy Mothers Day to all of you! I hope you all are enjoying the last few hours of this wonderful day in a custom to which is memorable. I am just putting away some clothes from my laundry. Mom is downstairs watching Nature and having some pie. Today was just wonderful. I woke up pretty early and got ready for my day. Before leaving for my swim I found Mom in her usual spot in the back room reading the paper and having coffee. On the kitchen counter I found a small gift bag with two boxes and a card in it from Mom. It was her mother’s day gift to me! In the two boxes were two beautiful rings. With beautiful stones and gems dispersed in through the silver back. They are absolutely beautiful. I have been wearing them all day. I have them on each hand. Before going for my swim I stopped at Roberta’s to feed Junior. I made sure I spent some time with her. I was on the floor with her and rubbed her belly and behind her ears and all over her. She seemed to like ...

We had some wild weather come through the state (at least the southern part). It got really cloudy and then the skies opened up with rain and thunder and lightening. It didn’t last long but it killed someone in Bridgeport today. I was at work when it happened but I wasn’t far from the window to see or hear it. The sun came out a few hours later and the wind picked up and the wind continued to be very strong. Happily it stopped but it is still very cool out. Work was pretty good. I saw some of my co-workers who came in to work for a few hours. It surprised me to hear that one of them comes in very early and would come be coming back on Sunday. After work I headed to the florist and got a lovely floral arrangement for Mom as her Mother’s Day gift. She wasn’t home when I got here but she got home she loved it. The rest of the day I didn’t do too much. I did some laundry and watched TV and we had dinner. Mom spent afternoon at the library and did some more shopping. Around 3:30 she came ho...

Hey all sorry for not writing but it’s been a busy couple of days and I have been rather tired. Happily the work week is almost done with. I have been getting a lot done and have done a little OT. I will be doing that tomorrow as well. I went swimming a couple more times this week. I went Wednesday and Today. I think I went in the morning on Wednesday and I went after work tonight. I really need to work on all aspects of the swimming. I finally got the minutes done for the 4th District. Mom helped me with it and now I just have to set up next months. There was some question as to whether or not we were having a 4th district and or regular DTC meeting in a few weeks as we have the conventions coming up and it conflicts with our meetings. The awards dinner was last night and by all accounts very successful. Mom and I sat with our fellow 4th district members. The whole thing got over by 10. I got a call from Roberta last night it was to remind me about watching Junior while the...

Well it seems a few of my blog sites that I have and go to from work have been blocked. That’s just wonderful. Oh well. That’s okay…shouldn’t be on it for that anyways. When I talked with Jill from Finance she said that she had heard several people were blocked from sites that they had. Work is going well. Lockbox was done within an hour after it was given to me so I spent time doing sending authorizations to the MDs. I got a lot done I think.

I was thinking about this earlier today when I was looking up travel options to Niagara Falls. If we (Dave and I )use AAA then the escorted trip would be through Collette Travels. Anyway with the unofficial start to summer in two weeks I was thinking about this what is planned for the summer? Well for the most part I will be working and perhaps most Saturdays unless something comes up. We have at least three holidays coming up that we will have off. Memorial Day, Independence Day (usually the Friday before or the Monday after depending on where it lands in the weekend. If the holiday actually lands on during the work week then we get that day off). Of course we then have Labor Day off. Activities with the family will probably include picnics, parties, and swimming (at Mike and Cheryl’s). The Pennsylvania branch of the family has been invited to come up and stay with Bob and Ethel after their camp. Although I am not sure if that will happen because it sounded like they have a ful...

Today was like something from a soap opera or even those reality TV shows. Lucinda was acting very unstable. She couldn’t remember if she drove or took the bus but that Mike helped her across the street because of the wind. She ended up infighting with both Camille and Joanie. She was very loud and obnoxious. When I talked with her about before leaving today she was not interested in anything I had to say. I tried to tell her she needs to take responsibility for the things she does and says. I also suggested if she is feeling out of sorts like she clearly was this morning to just do her work. As a result of this little explosion Joanie and Lucinda won’t be talking for the next several days. I really can’t blame them. Lucinda is very intrusive and thinks she is an expert on work ethic. She has continuously repeated ad nausea about her accident and upcoming surgery. Camille had enough that she went and talked with Howard. Cami NEVER complains to anyone about anyone else. Unfo...

Good Morning it is after 9 and in about an hour and half Mom and I will be leaving for Jessica’s Bridal shower at Anthony’s of New Haven . I have been there for several retirement parties and it is lovely. The view of the New Haven Harbor and the shoreline is breathtaking. I called Liz to offer a ride to the shower because I thought she would be very stressed and worried about Nelson. I didn’t mention yesterday that Nelson was hospitalized for internal bleeding again. I am not sure how long he is supposed to be in for but I hope it isn’t long. Anyway, Adam answered the phone and said Liz had already left for the hospital and for the shower. I am going to wear the green and black striped pant suit for the shower. I spent ten minutes ironing it this morning. Mom says she is wearing pants and blouse. Okay it is now several hours later and I had a great time. We had no problems per se in finding the place. We got there a little after 11 and Liz looked great. She updated us on Nel...

I could not believe how warm it got last night that I had to open the windows in the room last night. It was quite comfortable the entire night. They are still open now and there is a cool air coming through. I left them open all day. I finally did it. I went swimming like I said I would. I went for 20 minutes. I did several laps in various forms (breast stroke, floating, and some maneuvers I made up). I suspect I looked like a car driving all over the road. I found myself swimming into the wall at one point. I do have to admit it was tiring to say the least. I am going again tomorrow. I went to work straight from swimming and made a stop at Dunkin Donuts® and got some coffee. I was going to park in the lot across from the building but decided not to and parked in my regular spot in the garage. It was just a little after 8 when I arrived back at the building but made it later when I decided to chat with Arthur Parkman. I told Arthur about Bruce being let get and at first he...