The Road to Farley is Less Traveled

As if going back to work on a cold January morning from a weekend that went too quickly isn't dreadful enough, now I have to face this weather forecast: ...Major winter winter storm with heavy snow and blowing snow to impact the region tuesday afternoon into late wednesday afternoon... This will spread snow...Heavy at times...Along with strong winds and blowing across much of ...Iowa. Heavy snow accumulations are possible over the entire watch area. See what I'm saying? How can you be excited about something like this. I must say, however, that the upside to this winter has been that I am not responsible for shoveling snow! Woot!! After living in what came to be known as the "flood house" for nearly six years, I had forgotten this little hidden joy of condo living. Maybe I would anticipate a huge snow storm more if we got snow days at work. Those were the best days  when we were kids. They were nearly always the most perfect days to hit the slopes at S...

Remember the game "Operation" that we played as kids? If you blocked it out, it looked something like this: Some days, I feel a lot like this sad sack. I feel I'm on the slippery slope of eventually needing a lot of new body parts. There are a few I'd really like to trade in for new ones, but I watched too many episodes of Nip/Tuck to go that route. I can just hear Drs. Troy and McNamara asking, "Carol, tell us what you don't like about yourself?" Anyway, I digress. Back in October, I did a graceful fall off the bottom step into my basement. If judges had been present, I'm sure I would have been awarded an extra 3.1 for degree of difficulty. I was dressed in a skirt and tights on my way to my niece's bridal shower on a brisk, yet dreary-looking, Sunday morning. So, there I was, in a skirt, carrying a large gift bag filled with martini glasses and an assortment of vodka and mixers on my left hip and a large tumbler of coffee in my right hand....

One of my besties celebrated her birthday today -- Happy Birthday Katie! We decided to go old school for dinner. My other bestie Liz and I took Katie and her hubby Caleb to the Ced-Rel Supper Club in Cedar Rapids. It was like stepping back in time -- red leather booths, a relish tray served with every dinner, and a menu filled with big steaks and fish. You'll find no food artfully arranged on a plate with drizzles of raspberry swirled around. You get your slab of meat on a plate with a potato of your choice served on a separate plate. Oh, and don't forget the bean pot.  What was absent was the smoky haze that likely filled the room 50 years ago. A little Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin as background music would have made it all complete. When Katie asked the hostess if they had Johnnie Walker Red, she gave her a look and said in a gravelly voice, "Yea, honey we got Johnnie Walker Red." Duh, Katie! Katie and Caleb! Katie and Liz I would be remiss if I didn't give ...

Well, I made it a full 10 days of my "365" blog before missing a beat. Sure, I can come up with lots of reasons why I went missing on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the truth is I just didn't make the time. I had moments where I was going to post something for the day, but I was out of my usual rhythm. I was in Lawrence, Kansas the past two days for work.  This is what I dislike about traveling for work: I miss Bailey.  I eat too much.  I never make the effort to work out.  I stay up too late at night catching up on my "normal" work because the day was filled doing "other" work that was related to the business travel.  I dislike crowded airports, crowded airplanes, and small airplane seats.  Fortunately, for this trip, at least, I didn't have to contend with the air travel issues because you can't really fly from Iowa City to Lawrence. So, instead, you endure a 10+ hour round trip to get there and back. Today was not bad, but when we left on ...

As I left for work this morning at 6:45 a.m., I tried to convince myself that it was imperceptibly lighter than it had been at this same time on Friday. I could see the rays of sunlight edging slightly over the eastern horizon. I googled for the exact sunrise times for Friday and today. Well, that was disappointing, there was like 1 second difference. But, hey, I said it was imperceptible, didn't I? In case anyone besides me is interested in this useless trivia, in one month we will have 56 more minutes of daylight, and in six months we will 5 hours and 43 minutes more daylight than we did today. Hello July! I'll be ready for one of my favorite pastimes...cruising on the river. 

A couple of days ago, I went on and on about how much I love chocolate/sweets. One of my other loves is dogs. And, most specifically, I love me a good herding dog. This affection started when I was just a wee one, still in diapers. Here I am with Dusty, one of our first Collies.  Then came Goldie. She still reigns supreme as the #1 Collie when we were growing up. I think I was 6 when she came on the scene as a puppy. She truly was one of the family. She particularly loved going for boat rides with us on our many Sundays at our Grandma's cottage at Lake Delhi. (Lake Delhi...well, that's a story for another day.) Lassie was popular on TV around this time. At one point, my mom stopped letting me watch it because I would cry and cry at every episode. That's remained constant...I have copies of Lassie Come Home and a collection of the best Lassie episodes. Yep, you guessed it. They still make me cry. From the original Lassie Come Home with a young Elizabeth Taylor and R...

Today was a nearly perfect lazy Saturday, and I didn't even hit the Bailey's this morning. Bailey (the dog -- not the booze) woke me up at the usual 5 a.m.; however, after a brief spin around the block we were soon snuggled back in bed. To my surprise, she didn't really pester me to get up until almost 9:30. That's unheard of! But, who can resist this cute face pawing at you?  After my yoga workout and a short nap on the couch, I did a little cleaning and got all my laundry done. I kept up with the breaking news story of the shooting of U.S. Representative Giffords and others in Tuscon. What is wrong with our country?  My main focus today was my dire need for a new computer. I've been using a vintage 2003 Gateway PC that I inherited from my sister. This relic is running a 2002 version of XP and has a mere 256 MB of RAM. I can't even open most video clips. Everything I do, just about, is somehow done via computer so getting some new technology is dire. I remem...

I fell asleep on the couch at 7 p.m. tonight. At 8, I took Bailey out for the night, and we came upstairs to go to bed. Here it is 2 1/2 hours later, and I'm still sitting at the computer. I communicated with a friend via Facebook after someone posted a snarky comment on her wall that spending too much time on Facebook did not set a good example for her daughters. Those were fighting words to me because my friend is an amazing woman. She is beautiful and funny and smart and driven. Above all else, she is an amazing mother. It is at moments like this that I despise social networking. It is so easy for people to post insensitive comments without thinking of how they will be received. My friend admitted to me that the comment made her cry, and she wanted to close her Facebook account at that very moment. Another friend of mine had a similar reaction a few months back when she and her brother had "words" over a comment he had posted.  I think it goes back to my thoughts abo...

There is no denying it. I love chocolate. Well, maybe I should broaden that. I love sweets. I mean, I really really like them. This isn't all that surprising, my parents love them some sweets, too. I was watching an episode of Celebrity Rehab tonight and wondered if Dr. Drew could start a program for people addicted to sugar. Of course, the fact that Dr. Drew is kind of hot might have had something to do with it. My friend Sara bought me a box of Bochner Chocolates for my birthday. They are almost too pretty to eat.  I was also playing with the settings on my camera tonight. This is my candy in "pastel."  And sepia tones... And black and white... I'm going to share these and my leftover Betty Jane Candies Rumballs with my co-workers tomorrow when we go to Three Samurai for my post-birthday lunch. Good times.

I stopped for gas today on my way home from lunch with my good friend Cassie. I snapped this photo with the intent of writing something humorous about how silly/weird/suggestive this name is for a convenience store. But, before I had a chance to upload the photo and jot down my musings for the day, I watched the documentary "Very Young Girls."  Wow. After viewing this film, I didn't feel very humorous. In fact, it's hard for me to describe all the emotions I felt. I am not naive enough to think this wasn't happening, but hearing these young girls' stories was heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time. As I sat on my couch in my cozy house, on an afternoon that I was getting paid for not being at work, I thought how lucky I was to have grown up in a nurturing environment with parents who instilled self-confidence in me. I simultaneously was thinking, really, how easy my life has been, and given the opportunities I have had over the years, that somehow ...

Another vacation day for me. I could really get used to early retirement, if not for the tiny issue of money.   Bailey and I took our first walk of the new year to Willow Creek Park. It looks rather cold and empty. Kind of like the house today after taking down all the Christmas decorations. I'm going to try and remember to take this same photo at the beginning of each month to show how the seasons mark the passage of time on our daily walks. Today also marked my first Weight Watcher's meeting of 2011. Suffice it so say I've been on a feeding frenzy the past couple of weeks with Christmas, my niece's wedding, New Year's, and my birthday. Thankfully, since December 14, 2010, I only gained 1.8 pounds. I'll chalk that up as a success (sort of). 

A great 49th birthday! Pearl's pancakes for breakfast. Multiple naps. Martinis and dinner with my breakfast crew.  In lieu of a birthday cake, Katie and I split the Oreo cheesecake.  We also set our social calendar for the year. Lots of fun on the horizon: Madison, Chicago, Vegas, California, Vermont! I think it is going to be a good year.  These lyrics have been on my mind the past few days, from the musical "Rent" 525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.  525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?  In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.  In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.  In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? So, there it is...in 525,600 minutes I will be FIFTY years old. Wow...that is just weird to me. I used to think 50 year old people were REALLY old. Damn.

Today is my brother Tim's birthday. As kids, we frequently had to celebrate our birthdays together since my birthday is tomorrow. As evidence... Looks like this was the year he turned 8 and I turned 4. Something weird was going on with my bangs, and I'm not sure why I'm dressed in a summer shirt in the dead of winter. Dave (on the far right) looks particularly excited to be celebrating birthdays with us. About the only thing missing from this picture is June Cleaver...we look so dang wholesome. Let's see, so if I was 4 in that picture, that means 45 years have gone by since it was taken. We look a little differently now. And, I have to show a picture from tonight, with my favorite great-nephew Carter. He cracks us all up!

I'm already a day behind on the one thing I said I was going to do this year. One of my coworker's is an avid blogger, and I read on one of her posts a couple of months ago about her goal to complete a 365 blog, which meant she planned to take a photo and make a blog entry for every day of the year. So, since 2011 is the year leading up to my next milestone birthday, I decided to try and do the same. Here it is 1-2-11. Well, suffice it to say that New Year's Eve and my niece Amanda's wedding had a little something to due with my excessive fatigue on New Year's Day. This is my first look at daylight on Saturday, January 1, 2011, taken out the window from Room 433 at the Grand Harbor in Dubuque. I stumbled to the window and opened the curtains, thinking all the while "my head hurts...."  This helps explain the hurting head - shots of Southern Comfort at midnight with Alex (the groom) and brother Jerry. Here's to 2011 -- Cheers!!