Success Finally!

I have finally been able to arrange for my blog readers to get an email when I post a new entry on one of the blogs. This had turned out to be way more complicated than it needed to be. Which is why Google/Blogger.com figured out a very slick, easy way to accomplish what had been so difficult.

I love my readers and know they really try to keep up with all of my thoughts and jottings and for that I am very grateful. But now it will be easier than ever to stay in touch.

And for that I am glad!

Shake Things Up

Have you taken your daily vitamin and then not remembered if you did or not? Brushed your teeth and then done it again? Driving around, do you have to stop and think about where you are and how you got there?

We all tend to zone out when it comes to doing our routine tasks, but what's the fun in that? To stay more alert to what you are doing in each moment, try some of the following tips:

• Put your pants on with the left leg first.
• Park in different spots so you have to pay attention to where your car is.
• Make a new recipe for dinner.
• Switch the contents of your drawers: Put your socks where your undergarments are and vice versa.
• Read a book about a subject you haven't been interested in before.
• Take a walk in a different location.

Shake things up a little. No more auto pilot!

First Moments of Spring



Spring flowers appearing in San Francisco, soon to be here!

 It's 72 degrees here and I am sitting outside on the deck. There is not much green to be seen in my view, and a pretty heady wind is blowing. But there is no denying that it feels like spring. Hallelujah!

Last night was the first night I could crank open the window above my sink and feel the warm sweet air filling the kitchen. I always relish that first day when the house is too warm and I can cool it down by cracking the window for a short while. Since it is still mid-March, the outside air eventually got too cold and I had to close the window. But this is a true harbinger of spring for me.

I don't know what your first impressions of spring are, but I hope you enjoy them. The full-fledged season of rebirth and all of its beauty will be here soon. Can't wait.

If You Can Make it Here. . .



We are back from our whirlwind trip to New York City. We had a good time, saw a lot of sights (and people), a show (Memphis which was great) and a lot of basketball (Big East Tournament).

We planned to take one of the city bus tours one day that would drive us around for a couple of hours and from which you can jump off to spend more time at a particular place. You don't  have to search for these tours: they find you. Spend a few moments in Times Square and several vendors will approach you to sell you tickets for tour buses. We only wondered for a few moments about how they knew we were out-of-towners. I'm sure our dress and body language gave us away.

But on the last day we were there, a man came up to us and asked us, as he pointed, if that was the Chrysler Building in the distance. We said yes, we thought so and he looked surprised: "You mean you aren't New Yorkers?" he asked. Guess we had finallly made it. And as the song says, if we can make it there, we can make it anywhere. Felt like we were on top of the heap!

The City That Never Sleeps

New York City is one of a kind. You can find anything here, at any time of the day.

The people here seem to be in a hurry at all times. Women, especially, are hard-charging in heels, which is a talent I will never master, even on my best day. They are well-dressed at all times, wearing the latest fashion -- boots, skinny jeans or leggings and little ruffly skirts.

Black still rules fashion here, but the clothing stores are showing color in all the windows for summer. Wonder who will wear them?

We saw Memphis on Broadway. Great show. Such talent performers have.

So many people everywhere you look. Amazing. But not enough green spaces.

Saw a brownstone for sale and wondered how much it was going for. Probably 2 or 3 million, AND it needs work. Only in New York.

What's Your Real Age?

With another birthday looming, I got to thinking about what an age actually means. People always say that you are only as old as you feel, which on somedays is an adage to avoid. But really: How OLD are we?

I used to get updates from the Real Age website, where you can take a test and see what your Real Age is, they say. I also took a similar test on our Wii Fit Plus program, and that didn't turn out so well. I was ready to send all of those  mini Miis packing when they told me I had the body of someone in their 70s. And just because I couldn't balance on one leg, which I don't think I have ever been able to do!

I know that when I had a stress test more than ten years ago they said I had a great heart for someone my age, which I credit to genetics, and when I had my hearing test I was told I had the hearing of a ten year old.

So from all of this I gather that no one has a clue how old we really are, least of all us. But that doesn't keep us from getting a little down when we see just how many candles are on this year's cake, which is plain old  poppycock, (a word I have always wanted to use in an article.)

How old am I? Well, I think I will go with that other adage that says Age Is Just a Number --  one we can control or let control us.

Spring Cleanup Begins

Now that the large snow mounds have finally melted here, we can see what they have been hiding for the past few weeks -- a lot of trash. Driving down my everday roads I have noticed milk cartons, water bottles, newspapers and other trashy things lying along the roadways.

I saw one man, wearing a blaze orange safety vest, collecting these items yesterday, hopefully disposing of them in the right manner. Kudos to him.

When my sons were young, I would always send them out with a bag in hand on a spring day -- after some of the mud had dried up -- to gather up all of the trash that had blown into the yard and down over the hill throughout the winter. We also usually found a lot of balls that had never made their way into the garage after being played with.

Guess I will have to don my mud boots and get out there and start picking trash up, along with the dead branches that have fallen from the oak trees. I don't think this is what anyone means by "spring cleaning," but it qualifies.

Ah, spring. Wonderful.