Christmas Parties and Fun

We had a Christmas Party at the Park last night and one at the bridge club today. I enjoyed them both very much. I ended up coming in 2nd overall at the bridge party besides having a ball.
The weather has been great. Mac and I are enjoying our new furniture here in Florida.
Tues. I went to see "Australia" with my girlfriends. My good friend Harry is coming Monday and Mac and I are going to the theater on Sun.
Tomorrow night Evan is playing at Joe Louis between periods of a hockey game in front of a crowd of people.
When I am not out playing I play scrabble with Beth on the computer.

Florida Home

Mac and I had a hard trip down from Michigan. We left the Sat. after Thanksgiving and the traffic on Sat was fine, but Sun. after Atlanta it was one traffic jam after another. We finally stopped overnight in Gainsville to get off of the road. I hate I-75 any time, but this was the worse. I heard from some neighbors down here that it was still bad on Monday. (The construction, the accidents, etc.)
Mac and I have been working all week on unpacking and getting new equipment for our house. We are being welcomed here with open arms and it feels real nice to be here. Mac's nephew, John Sparks, dropped in the first day we were here. He was coming by on his way back from Lake City. We had lunch together and Mac and John fixed the bathroom sink leak.

Today we went to the doctor to get our regular blood work done. We aren't sick at all, but we usually get a cholesterol, liver, and blood sugar test twice a year (maintenance). We both weighed 90.4 which was low for me. He weighs less than me usually.

The weather has been a little chilly and we have had the furnace on a few times. It is sooooo much better than Michigan though, anyway you look at it.

Winter is Here

I haven't blogged in ages. I have been to busy with Scrabulous, Wordscraper, and now Lexulous to do anything else whenever I have a bit of computer time. It is very stimulating though. What am I grateful for today--my cold is getting better, no new snow, enough energy to go off to Yoga at 8 in the morning, that I can spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family, that my Christmas newsletter is done and a lot of my Christmas shopping.
Sofie's giggle, as Anja opened the birthday present from her on October 30th, still echoes in my mind. She was so excited about the gift that it was a miracle she hadn't yet told Anja what it was already.
I just love being a grandma!!!

Puzzling!!?

When I had all of the company last week I didn't bother to go to the Library and collect my weekly NYT Sunday crossword. I went in Mon. and got the two I had missed with a bonus puzzle. I have been sick all week. Great gobs of green and chartreause snot come out of my nose and lungs. I have been hoarse and tired. Regardless of this I was able to do one of the crosswords 100% and the other all but about 3 squares and the bonus in about 3 hours Monday night. Last night I did my very first Killer Sudoku. (My sister Beth gave me a hint about them when she was here.) I guess my body is sick but my mind works OK.

New Outfit

My new blouse came yesterday from Cloldwater Creek. I bought it in Ann Arbor and it is the 4th and final top that I have purchased to go with these pants.
I got such a deal on the pants ($2 at the Izod outlet in TC). I even found them at the Birch Run Izod on sale for $40 last week. The pants set me off on a huge shopping binge that ended in Ann Arbor.
(I got one top in Brighton, two others in Grand Rapids.)
Mary was with me when I tried this blouse on in a size L in AA. It was just the right colors but a little snug. It zips up the front and looks cute that way too. Mary encouraged me to ask them to look for an XL at another shop. They found it in Troy and sent it to Gowen for free. I just love it. Since the pants were such a good deal I don't feel bad about spending $53 on the blouse. (The blouse was on sale too!)
I now have another nice outfit for Sean's party weekend in New York. I am flying to NY a few days early to play bridge with Harry and then he will take me to the party and I am riding back to the NY airport with Shannon and Caleb.
My next big party is the 4th of July weekend. I will be having 11 people overnight in two campers and our dorm room. We have the fireworks purchased and the pills to sedate the dog and I even ironed the boat decorations. We will have all of this done and it will rain all weekend.
Oh welll, as Mac says, we will just about have this place whipped into shape by the time we leave in November for FLorida.

I'm Lonesome

We had a great family reunion at Jerry's Boyne home. Shannon and her family came to Gowen the night before and we stayed overnight at Jerry's and then spent Father's day in Traverse City and met Patrick there, followed by a week in Gowen with Shannon's family, Beth and Mary and now they are all gone and I miss everyone a lot.

What's Up

Today we found out that Mac doesn't have prostate cancer. He had a biopsy on Friday and we got the results today. He is very relieved. I even got shingles from the pressure of his depression. He was so up tight that I felt like I should just shoot him to put him out of his misery. I did get to go to Ann Arbor for a few days in the middle of all of this PSA nonsense. That was really fun. I played bridge and shopped and saw some of my old and dear friends down there. I had to cut the visit short when Mac found out he had to have a biopsy. The procedure took about 10 minutes and the results came back pretty fast.(3 days)

Mary is in Ann Arbor now and soon we will all converge on Jerry's place for a huge family reunion. It will be the first time I have been with all of my sisters and brothers since Dad's funeral three years ago. Shannon and her whole family should be arriving in Detroit right about now. It will be great to see them after all the time they have been in Europe.

I have started a great new scrapbook. I identified 23 fantastic females in my life an told them that they were going to be in a book together. They are my favorites, I asked them to tell me what their favorite things were. I got two responses so far. Beth sent her photos of grandchild #1, ultrasound of #2, owls, movie angels and her family. Jo sent pictures of her and Sean, her dog, a great looking key lime cupcake with sprinkles and an ultrasound of follicles and some drug they use in the fertility process. I am really amazed with the creativity they both used to express a collage snapshot of themselves. I have been loving my part too, which is to write up the reasons that I am including them each as a favorite. I have done Beth, Shannon, Anja, Jo and Sofie so far. My sister Mary tells me that I can say she is my favorite sister because she drinks more than all of the rest and is the thinest. I will try to say something a bit more than that. 18 to go.