Jeff hasn't changed much since '91

My mother-in-law gave us Jeff's baby book (aaawwww!), and in the back was a self-evaluation that hubby filled out for school in 1991. It's hilarious. Some of it still applies:

1. I think I do my best in school: Yes AND No
If you said no, how can we help you? Teach me how to draw.

2. I try to help the class by: getting ready

3. Do you think you get along with the other children in your class? If not what can you do to change this? Stop talking and growing up

4. Working in groups can be fun. What do you do to help the group? giving pepol jobs (sic)

5. In what subjects to you need help? math

6. My favorite thing about second grade is Miss Cambell

7. My best subject in school is PE

Ha! Stop talking and grow up. Too cute.

Other highlights include a detailed record of all of Jeff's various accidents and emergency room visits, the fact that he turned over at 24 days, climbed stairs at 7 months, and walked on his own without coaxing at 8 months. Yeah, I can't believe I am going to have his children! I'm really in trouble..

I have Lime Disease

I woke up feeling so sore- my abs, my back, my shoulders, and I couldn't figure out why until I remembered squeezing all those limes last night to make limeade.

How sad. I am so out of shape!

: P

When life hands you limes...

...make limeade!

A few weeks ago, Jeff asked me to pick up "one or two limes" for something he was making. They were on sale, so following in the footsteps of my deal-crazy father, I bought ten. Those little guys have been calling to me from the fridge, and right before their demise I got inspired.

I don't even think I have had limeade before, but I did a pretty good job. Here's what I used:

8 limes, juiced. I got about a cup and a half of juice.
1 cup simple syrup. Just dissolve 1 cup of sugar into 1 cup of water on the stove.
Enough water to fill the rest of our 84-ounce pitcer.

Results: Yummy, summery refreshment!

Bonuses to making limeade: The lime rinds clean and freshen the garbage disposal, and the citric acid from squeezing all of the fruit exfoliated my cuticles!

This is a domestic adventure I will be sure to repeat.

Tip: To get all the juice out of the limes, roll them between your palm and the counter. Then, microwave them for 20 seconds. After juicing (I picked up a cheap hand-juicer from Target), I took the pulp and squeezed that through a fine mesh colander to get every molecule of limey goodness.

Happy squeezing!

Giggle-Worthy

This story is not related to Jerseymooning, but it's worth mentioning as it is giggle-inducing:

A man in NH was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars for a pack of cigarettes at a gas station.

Even better: it took him over two hours on the phone with the bank to contest the charge and get his $15 overdraft fee back.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (no spoilers)

Sigh. The Jerseymooners saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. I don't know what I was expecting exactly, but overall I was disappointed.

One the plus side, I thought that the acting was very good, especially from the "bad guys." Helena Bonham Carter creeps me out. Seriously. The kids are evolving with the material. There was only one character (a new one) that over-acted, but that was accceptable since the character is for comic relief. The humor is key to this installment, and the kids especially do a great job with it (with Rupert Grint being the funniest, of course).

On the negative side, I thought the movie missed some very key points. It barely skimmed the importance of the Half-Blood Prince and what it/he meant to Harry. Harry spends a good part of the book wondering who the Prince is and even entertains the idea that he is related to the Prince. The end of the book, the giant climax, the turning point in the whole series, was skimmed over and rushed in the movie. It really frustrated me. The movie also adds a scene that wasn't in the book and doesn't need to be in the movie. If it wasn't added, more time could have been spent on stuff that was important from the book. The Deatheaters were also given a feature/skill that they don't have in the book series at this point.

It was still better than Prisoner of Azkaban.

Let me know what you think of it when you see it.

PS- The picture is from Halloween a few years ago.

Two Wedding-Related Events and a Baby

This weekend was a lot of fun! On Friday, I visited my mom as usual to do laundry (since our apartment's dryer is lame). I ran a lot of errands, but afterward, we did some serious crafting.

On Saturday, Jeff & I visited the Haddonfield craft fair, which was fun. I didn't get anything because it was a lot of the same vendors as the Manayunk Arts Festival that I go to every year, but it was nice to look around. Then, we went with Jeff's brother Steve and his fiancee Gloria to North Jersey for our cousin Katie's engagement party. It was fun to have the family all together, and it was great seeing Katie so happy!

Sunday was Gloria's bridal shower in Pennsylvania. I have never seen Steve so nervous, but he did a great job with arranging the surprise! Again, it was fun to have family around, especially Katie and Aunt Pam, who we don't see often enough.

Today was a regular icky Monday but with one highlight: My coworker Nicole brought in her tiny, one month old baby! Holy Hormones, was he adorable! It rounded off the wedding-related weekend quite nicely. Two years or so and I get to have one of those little guys!

Happy to Serve You

I love when I get great customer service, and today was a day overflowing with courtesy and good-natured, helpful people, so I'll tell you all about it!

My first stop was Collision Max in Pennsuaken to get an estimate on my car repairs. The Geico representative, Joe, was so pleasant. I felt really comfortable leaving my car there. I was picked up by the Enterprise driver and representative to get a rental. Matt, the rep, and Andy, the driver, were a lot of fun. They called me with the damage, and there was more internal damage than I thought, but they'll get it fixed soon, and it's all guaranteed. I'm currently driving some really fast, black car that I hate because it's so powerful it scares me, but I look hot in it. : ) I'm really comfortable having Geico on my side.

Next up was David's Bridal in Maple Shade, NJ. I know, David's Bridal gets a really bad rap, and even I have had my problems with them. (I was in a wedding last year, and my DB shoes broke in the middle of the ceremony. It took several calls to corporate to get a refund.) I went today to get a few things for upcoming events, and I had dropped the ball to get shoes. I needed dyed shoes asap, but the fastest they were expected to get to me was in one week. The woman who helped me, Irina, did them on the spot! On a Friday evening in the middle of wedding season! I was so grateful that I almost teared up. Thanks, Irina! Also worth mentioning is the latest line of bridal gowns that Dabid's had. They were better quality with much better attention to detail than I have seen in years. they definitaly didn't have dresses like that when I was gown shopping! Some designs were reminiscent of Grace Kelly and Jackie O. Swoon!

Next, I went to pick up a dress I had ordered to wear to my brother-in-law's wedding this fall. I got distracted on my way into the store by Toes 2 Toes in Maple Shade next to the bridal shop. I don't even like shoes usually, but they had a sidewalk sale of really cute stuff outside. cute enough for me, the flip-flop/ballet flat-wearer to take a look inside. I was in that little boutique for an hour, chatting with staff for almost an hour. It was like I had known them forever. I tried on some cool stuff, most of which I would never wear in real life, but all high quality with great prices. I ended up getting two pairs of shoes (tally 3 pairs of shoes for the day, more than I buy in a year usually!), one to wear to the fore-mentioned wedding and another for fun from Opposites Attract, which are super fun because they have interchangeable accessories.



My last stop was to finally go back to Kay Bridal to pick up that gown. I bought my wedding dress there and had a great experience, so my mom got her gown for the wedding there as well. I can't stop going back! They remembered me and asked about the wedding and about my mom's health. How sweet! The dress fit perfectly (except the hem, but that's to be expected).

All in all, a day of great service. Research by the Disney company states that for every bad customer service experience, the consumer tells three friends or associates, but for every good experience, they tell 7-10 people. When is the last time you had great service?

Transportation Frustration

On April 15, I was driving home in the rain, taking the ramp to get on the Ben Franklin bridge. As any good Philly driver would know, there are three lanes there. I was in the righmost lane, and there was an 18-wheeler in the middle lane, to my left. We were going very slowly due to the weather and the deep curve of the road. I guess Mr. Truck driver decided he liked my lane better than his, because I felt and heard a bump. He rear-ended me! He could have killed me, but luckily he just tore off my bumper.

Here's the kicker: he told his insurance company that I hit him!

(mental forehead slap!)

My insurance company is dumbfounded and they're being really great, but long story short, Mr. Truck Driver's insurance won't pay for the damage, even though he clearly rear-ended me. Did they think I was driving backwards on the ramp? Grrrr!

I don't get it. All I want is a new bumper (or my old one reattached!) In the litigious society we live in, any other person would have sued them for whiplash, but I just want a bumper.

Anyway, tomorrow, I have to get up super early and fight traffic to get an estimate for repairs. Yuck. Send me happy bumper thoughts!

Honeymoon: the sequel

Jerseymooning keeps getting better! Jeff, the excellent husband that he is, wanted a flat-screen TV, so he took on a part-time second job to save for it. He decided instead that he'd rather go to Disney World this fall! So, off to a second mini-moon! He's the best! We're hoping for good weather, since it rained every day but two on our honeymoon.

Other good news includes our cousin Katie's engagement party. It's a long time coming, and she deserves a great time! It will be exciting to see her, and her mom, who married us.

My Life is Average

It's the end of a beautiful holiday weekend! I hope everyone had a nice time.

On Friday night, I reorganized my bathroom cabinet. It needed it. It made me very happy. My life is average.

Saturday was fun, though. I went to the pool with Jeff's family to celebrate Independence Day, my brother-in-law's30th birthday, and his pre-bachelor-party dinner. Yay Steve!

How did you spend the holiday? I bet it wasn't as cool as my Friday!

Good mommy news!

My mom had her check-up yesterday, and everything was free and clear! This is always such a relief to hear, a huge weight lifted off of our collective shoulders.

I will concentrate my good-health vibes to my friend Kelly, who is currently in treatment.

Lots of love to both Mom and Kelly for being strong women.

Toxicity!

You may have noticed that I deleted some content and comments from my first post. The reason is that they were about/from a person that I used to be friends with, but due to personality clashes, we no longer speak.

It is really cleansing to get rid your life of toxic people, but as anyone who works with people with personality disorders knows, they always manage to eek their negativity back in. It's frustrating, and I played right into her hands at first, but this is my blog, so I will set the boundaries necessary to keep it a positive and safe space for me and my friends. This is why I chose to delete the comments.

This person in particular was way fun to hang out with, but a friendship on anything more than a very superficial level didn't work. I expend enough energy at work with women who have a strong sense of entitlement or who maniupulate and twist things around to fit their perception of life, and it was just too taxing to maintain a relationship like that in my personal life.

In short, isn't it fun to be an adult and be able to make these healthy decisions for yourself, rather than to play games and get involved in sneaking around with he-said/she-said nonsense? I think so!

Back to my mental vacation....

: )

What a beautiful day!

Happy July!

It finally feels like summer today, after all the rain we've gotten. I'm working this evening, but I am taking a daydream vacation. You're all invited! We can pretend to be at the beach.

Sigh... that's nice. It's also economical and cuts down on travel time.

Enjoy the sunshine!