Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Wow! December 18th and I am done with the Christmas Letter, cards stuffed and mailed. I asked Tom to cut down the card list this year, so he did. The list went from 70 to 69! And I think he did that by somehow meshing two people together. The house is in a constant state of decoration.
Here is a shot of the mailbox after I redid it. All the outdoor decorations got creamed in the storm last week

Atticus wants you all to see the fireplace and to know he has his very own stocking. It is the one just to the right of his Dad's Red Sox stocking. He's not too sure what this is all about but he knows something up there smells very good! Atticus Beauragard Cocker of the Tennessee Cockers, is settling in to the life at Seagull Cottage quite well. He has started to play with Yaar and the sight of the two of them wrestling through the living-room or the yard is a sight to behold. Yaar has never played with any dog the way she plays with Atticus. Health-wise he is doing very well. He has put a little bit of weight on and looks a whole lot better. His presence here in the house has Sir Albert Paddy-Paws quite perplexed. For the the past 4 1/2 years Al"s life has included being chased and tormented by Kayto. Kayto knew Al was placed here purely for his enjoyment. But Atticus is a lover not a chaser and I am confident the day will come when I find him and Al curled up together.

There are boxes coming from Washington for Josh. I have to catch the mailman as I have to wrap some of the gifts. I have instructions as to where each item is to go. Either under the tree or in the stocking. It's nice having Josh here this year. I just wish for the Christmas when the whole family can be together, just one more time.

We will be having the traditional Lithuanian meal on Christmas Eve. It is called Kucios (pronounced KUCHA) and consists of twelve meatless dishes representing the twelve Apostles or twelve months of the year. The tradition of the supper can be traced back to pre-Christian times and connected with remembrance of the souls of deceased ancestors. Tom's youngest brother, Jonas, will be doing the cooking at Mom's house this year. Auntie Amelia usually hosts the dinner, but this year, because of her elbow, she has had to relinquish the preparation to Jonas. Jonas is very proud of his heritage and spends as much time in Lithuania as his schedule permits. I am sure we will have some dishes we have not had before. I just know Tom and I are in charge of purchasing the white fish and smelts and getting them to Lawrence.

I stopped at the Italian bakery a few weeks ago and got a dozen of the ground walnut cookies coated in powered sugar. $11.00 for a dozen cookies! So I gave a try at making them myself. I was sure I could make a lot more cookies for a lot less money! I did. I found a great recipe on a blog from here in Boston.( TheHungryMouse.com )Take a look. it's a cute blog. The cookies came out very good. I tried a batch with cake flour and one with regular flour and discovered the regular worked best. I left the tray of cookies on the table and when Tom got up in the morning he discovered Yaar in the middle of the table, helping herself to the tea cookies. She has a sweet tooth! Lesson learned: Cookies will not be left out on the table. There is a reason I have cookie jars. I will use them going forward.

Well I should have reviewed the blog before I baked Chocolate Kiss Macaroons yesterday. My kitchen is about the size of a small powder room, so when I bake I have to get very creative. I put the cooling racks on the dining room table and tipped the chairs back to avoid any problems. I just didn't do all this fast enough. In the time it took me to turn around , set the baking sheet down and return to tip the chair the cookie count had gone from 14 to 12 and there wasn't a dog in sight. Later in the baking the trays were too close to the edge of the table and she snagged another one without spilling any on the floor. She's smart. And she did not share any with Atticus because he was asleep in the kitchen all the time. Today's Chocolate Dipped Oreos are in the cookie jar!

So that's it folks. Still a lot of Christmas stuff to do, but the most important is to wish you all

Merry Christmas

Happy Chanukah

&

A Terrific New Year!

Life at the beach has Good Days & Bad

Where do I start. How about I do GOOD - BAD and finish with some more good? That sounds like a good way to keep everybody happy at the end.

To day is day 63 of me quitting smoking!!! I have not killed myself, had nightmares, or experienced erratic behavior. Yes, I am using Chantix! I didn't want to post anything until I was sure I would stick with it. It hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be. There have been moments when I wanted to go down to the store and buy a pack. I thought I just HAD to have a smoke. But the great part is I just take a couple of deep breaths and the desire is gone. I feel a little bit better. No coughing any more unless I get something caught in my throat. I am breathing clear as a bell and do not get winded walking. I can now hold my breath for 52 seconds. I am trying to get back to the 1min. 30 sec. I could do when I was younger.(Swimming underwater)

Sunday, October 25th Kayto started not feeling well. He was having trouble walking and we thought he had hurt a paw. I took him to the vet on Monday morning and she said it looked like a slipped disk. He got a shot and some pills and came home to rest. After a two hour nap he woke up and his back legs were paralyzed. By the time he got to the specialist on Wednesday, he had lost the feeling all the way up his spine and the possibility of surgery was out of the question. So I had to make the awful decision to let him go. Those of you who were lucky enough to know my Kayto, know what a special little boy he was. He was such a part of me. His fifth Birthday was coming in December. I can only say how thankful I am for the 4 1/2 years of love and devotion he gave me. Tom was such a brick for me, yet I know he was heartbroken as well. And what was I going to do about Yaar? She had never known a single day since she was eight weeks old without Kayto. The photo is of him and his beloved Goat who had been his "buddy" since he was three months old. You can see Goat has been through a lot of loving!

Believe it or not, something made me go to the computer the very next morning and look up Cocker dogs. I visited several sights through out the morning and this one dog kept showing up. A little brown and white boy named Atticus. He was at a place sponsored by Paws and Claws Rescue of Kentucky and New Hampshire. I emailed to get more information and found out he was a 4 year-old who had been rescued from a puppy mill in Tennessee. I checked with Tom and then asked if I could drive to Manchester, NH to meet him. He would be at the PetSmart store Saturday afternoon. We drove up with Yaar to meet him and it was love at first sight. Atticus took one look at her and it was over! He was a funny looking little guy and in my heart of hearts I knew this was no pure Cocker Spaniel, had to be some Springer? maybe in there. But one look at that face and Tom and I followed the falling in love thing. I think Yaar was the last to fall. He has a few problems but they are small and can be managed. He's a very smart little boy. When he came he didn't know what to do in a yard, he'd never been in such a large space. Stairs were out of the question. And he wasn't too sure about the answering to his name thing. By Sunday evening he was flying up and down the stairs, running around the yard with Yaar and not only did he come to his name but he's learned my "get your butts over here" whistle! In fact he beats Yaar to me. He has learned to sit to get a treat and to sit when told. I will add a smile book of the dogs before I close. Oh yes, before I forget...my little mixed Cocker isn't a mix afer all! Turns out I have an English Cocker to go with my American Cocker! Go Figure!!!!!

And the last of the good news is that the HOUSE IS FINISHED!!!!! Tom and I (with two 4-legged helpers) just finished painting the rails on the upper deck. We are done for now. The yard and walk will have to wait until spring. But the place looks great. I will try to get some pictures to show the recessed porch lights. That really looks super. I can't wait to decorate for Christmas.

Oh yes, before I forget. I did speak to the Doctor and hopefully by the middle of December I will have had the surgery! He was very proud of the smoking thing and the fact I have lost 65 pounds since he saw me last. Can you believe I am still losing weight and I quit smoking???

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Pigs Are A'Flyin' and the Devil's got Ice Cubes!

What a month September has been. Still crazy weather, but the contractor has returned and I quit smoking!

Kevin finally got the release from his doctor and has been here working every day for the last week. There is just a bit left on the south side of the second floor, some upper trim work along the roof line in the back and some corner work left. Add the new gutters, and house done! The electrician still has to figure out why the porch lights are not working and get them fixed, but then the house will be finished at last. Now we can start to worry about the yard and the inside of the house. We still have a few rooms to paint, we would like to replace the awful carpet with wood floors and expand the kitchen. These will have to wait for us to win the lottery though.

Kayto and Yaar have continued to bring us joy. They love having Kevin back and will really miss him when he's gone. I will add some recent snapshots before I sign off.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

About me and the smoking. Today is day # 20 without the cigarettes. Now I love to smoke. I enjoy it. I didn't want to quit. They say you only do these things for yourself, no one else and myself hated the idea of quiting. But, I hate the huge hernia I have even more. The surgeons all refused to do the surgery as long as I continued to smoke. Something about the nicotine hindering the healing process and making it more likely for the hernias to return. So with the help of a wonderful PA named David, the support of my wonderful husband, family, friends and that wonder drug, Chantix, the smokes went bye - bye on September 7th. October 6th will be my 30th day and I plan to have the surgery date scheduled by then. You bettcha !

I haven't had too many of the side effects reported by other Chantix users. No erratic behavior, desires to do harm to myself or others and no wacky dreams. I've had a few dreams but then I have been sleeping better so that explains that. At first I was getting very nauseous after taking the pill. The instructions say to take it with food, so I was taking it about half way through my meal. Within minutes I had to stop eating and lay down. After a week I said, "Self, something is wrong. Do not put food behind this pill!" So I started taking it after I eat and all is well with the world. I promise to keep you posted on how all this works out. Oh, by the way, I have managed to loose five pounds along with this. I'm drinking water instead of eating when the cravings come.

I can't say why this is working this time. No one nagged at me. No one tried to shame me into quitting. Lord knows I was fighting it tooth and nail! Support has come from all over. My daughter-in-law, Jenene, will call from Washington state to give me pep talks and to relay words of encouragement from son, Jerry; friends will stop me on the street and ask if I am okay. And it's true, things smell different and taste different. I've smoked since I was 12 (49 years) and never thought I would see the day when I didn't have smokes in my pocket. Now I've seen 20!

Aunt Amelia fell and broke her right arm at the elbow and had surgery to repair it. She now has a titanium plate and numerous screws. She will gladly pull out the copies of the x-rays and show them to one and all. The surgery was done in Boston, after a few days she transferred to North Andover for rehab. She is doing very well. The staff there works with her several times a day. She is learning to use the left hand, keeping her legs in good condition and already working on the elbow flexing. She tells us they give her a couple of Tylenol before the workout. That's Auntie's idea of pain medication! She also had a hairline fracture of the right cheek, but the doctors say that will heal on it's own. She got the okay to use a straw and blow her nose, the two things she couldn't do until the plastic surgeons checked the bone.

Jessica is starting her EMT classes this fall and will have her exams for certification later in the winter. This is a field where she is going to really shine! She's going to make a difference, that one will. And people are going be so glad she is there for them. Samantha switched to U MASS Boston and keeps herself busy working two jobs and studying to keep her top grades. Josh has decided to forgo baseball this year. Despite all the work to strengthen his shoulder, there was some pain when he pitched and he made the choice to not take the chance of doing serious damage. He is keeping very busy with his classes, an internship with the Andover Police Department, his job at the Hyatt and his numerous jobs around campus.

So as I said at the begining, this has been a busy month. I had no idea so many were following my little saga about life in Winthrop by the Sea. But I promise to try to do better in keeping you all up to date. I may even tell you about my addiction to this season's TV shows and my plot to TIVO, DVR, and Hulu my way through all the shows I like.

Bye for now...

Be Careful What You Wish For

Summer is here! Boy, is summer here! This is the 3rd or 4th day of 90 degree weather and I think there are a couple more days of this to come. The one thing about New England I will never get used to is how it can go from cold and rainy to hot and humid in 24 hours. Thank goodness the living room and dining room have AC. We put the upstairs AC unit into Josh's room as we have scaffolding outside our window and the unit won't fit. He may wake up with both his grandparents on the bed with him if this heat doesn't break soon.

I have found a way to get to sleep. I take a cold shower, bring an over sized t-shirt into the cold water, wring it out, put it on and go to bed wet. The fans provide a cool breeze and I can sleep. Of course I have to lay out a towel on top of the covers so the bed stays dry. It must keep me cool most of the night as I woke up and had Yaar, on her back, up against my damp shirt taking advantage of the coolness! Oh well, how much longer can this last?

Saturday, we joined Mom, Auntie, William and Wanda at the Knights of Columbus Lobster and Clam bake. It's really quite the feed. Chowder, corn on the cob, steamers, baked potato and twin lobsters. For those of us not into lobster there is Twin roasted half chickens! Yes, that's a whole chicken! No one goes away hungry from this event. There are the usual raffles: the 50/50, several chances on the big lottery, and they always have two 10# lobsters. Tom buys a buck's worth of tickets on each thing and we consider it our contribution to the club. I am looking at our tickets and my mouth drops open after the first number is called. I can't talk! I wave the ticket in the air and brother-in-law, William, grabs it and bellows out"We got a winna over hea". We won the biggest lobster I have ever seen! Tom had them boil him on the spot. I think he was afraid I would slip Louie out the back door and put him back in the ocean if he brought him home alive! This is a picture of Louie with Josh. Remember, Josh is 6'4" and over 200 pounds! That's one BIG creature.

Tom had to use a hammer and pliers to get the meat out. And despite what you may have heard, the meat was sweet and tender! Dinner Sunday night was the guys' favorite, Lobster and Mac & Cheese. There were four huge sandwiches for the two of them on Monday and still more in the fridge. Louie was very, very, very appreciated.

Still waiting on the contractor. First it was rainy and cold, now it's too hot to work. I do believe we will see this project completed some day.

That's about all the news for right now. Here are some shots of the dogs. Here they are at the cook out. Here's Yaar asleep in the back seat of the car using a sleeping Josh for a pillow!

Summer Might Really Be Here

Record rain! This is what we had for the entire month of June AND the first half of July! We have not done a thing to the house as our contractor is still not in good enough health to be climbing the scaffolding on the side of the buildiing. As he is not finished, we have not started on the yard.
We had a lady come out and look over the yard and she is going to give us an estimate on the redo. I have a feeling we will have to sell our grandson,Josh,to get the cash for the project.

July 8th through 12th Boston hosted the Tall Ships from all over the world. Here is a link to the website showing the ships that were here. http://www.sailboston.com/confirmed_ships.html

This is a picture of the Belle Poule out of France. We didn't have many come close by the house this year and I was not able to take pictures myself. The ones I could see were beautiful even if they were way out there. I can only imagine the beauty of the commings and goings back in the day!

Tom and I have been busy with the annual Regatta to benefit Make A Wish which our club sponsors each year. This is the 15th year and we hope to make the $32,000 as we did last year. With all the tightening of the budgets, we will consider it a success if we get close.

I am here in the Pilot House (the bar) as we just finished a meeting. I have to wait for Tom to pick me up so I thought this would be a good time to work on the blog. Today is another one of the very wet days we are calling summer. I just snapped this photo of our small boat deck in the rain.
It is low tide and as you can see there are not many boats here. I really hope the weather turns soon. I really want good skies for the races. We have races on Saturday and Sunday,August 1st & 2nd, a raffle and silent auction and a dinner on Saturday night. Tom has been busy selling tickets and collecting donations. I am not good at either of those so I made some jewelry for the auction and am on the administration side of the event, keeping track of all the tickets sold, tee-shirts sold and auction items.

We have very good items this year: A super sports package with 2 tickets to the Sox, the Bruins, the Celtics AND the Patriots!; 2 airline tickets to anywhere in the continental US; 500 gallons of gas and lots of other goodies.

Tom was in Mexico City last week and this just came across the wires about him:
"Tom Stundza, executive editor of Purchasing magazine, gave a keynote speech on the outlook for energy and metals commodities at the 7th International Congress on the Automotive Industry in Mexico City on July 14. Stundza’s presentation was covered by the Financial Times, the Mexico City newspapers and television news. Enrique Beltran, the conference coordinator for the sponsoring organization, Industria Nacional de Autopartes, e-mails that Stundza is “famous and popular in Mexico.” All this praise and they didn't even send him home with a bottle of good Tequila! He did, however, receive a travel razor that he can charge on his computer so he can shave his cheeks. Yes, he still has his beard. Doesn't every bearded man love getting a razor?

I got side-tracked and didn't get this posted fast enough for himself. So here is the creation as it stands now and I will pick up part two in a couple of days.

Bye for now

Ok, Six Months is Too Long!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Here it is April of 2009 and it has been six months since I updated the blog. The work stopped on the house and the autumn winds got too nasty to work on the second floor--and then the snow came. Winter was upon us before we knew it and greater Boston got a near-record 66-inches of the white stuff this winter. As usual, the only ones who really enjoyed the snow were Kayto and Yaar. The holidays came and went without much excitement. Life at the beach was cozy. And after the holidays, our contractor--working inside at a friend’s house, fell through the kitchen floor to the basement and broke his back in two places! He is doing better now but the healing has been slow so we are awaiting his full recovery to return to work.

We ventured up to Maine a while back as Tom had to give a speech to one of the seacoast chambers of commerce. The trip was a grand release after being in the house so long. The weather was cold and there was snow--but the sun was shining and the scenery was beautiful. The dogs had a great time exploring the grounds of the hotel and were perfect guests.

Tom finished his position as secretary of the yacht club but was elected to the board of the Lithuanian Club in South Boston so he still has lots of meetings. His work just keeps expanding for the magazine but it’s more online writing as the print product has gone to a monthly due to the reduced print advertising that’s plaguing the entire newspaper & magazine industry. Of course, with the economy so lousy, more metals and materials groups want to hear at their meetings what the buying groups are thinking/doing. So, Tom’s given speeches in Minnesota, Arizona, Alabama and Tennessee--and is heading to Nevada next week.

As I am still looking for work, I have been home just working on beadwork and yarn knitting projects. Some of them are going to Mom & Auntie (and Wanda Martinez, brother-in-law William’s fiancée). Some others are being stockpiled for the Make-A-Wish Regatta’s charity auction later this summer. Most of the indoor house projects left require stripping wood--the steps to and the landing and hallway on the second floor. I couldn’t start them as it was too cold to have the windows and doors open for ventilation. Now that the weather is warming I will have to start thinking about those projects. The dogs pose a problem also, as I have to be able to leave them outside so the fumes do not harm them.

We are slowly working our way through and donating away a lot of the stuff we have. Funny how that trinket we “just had to have” can seem so worthless now. And trust me; we have a lot of that stuff. T-shirts is one example. Do two people really need 12 T-shirts for each of the World Series games won by the Red Sox? Or is there a prize for having every shirt possible for the Super Bowl games won by the Patriots? So far we have managed to fill several bags for the Big Brothers-Big Sisters truck and I still have found more! Those jeans I wore when I was thin (all 5 minutes) can surely help someone else for now. Now it’s on to the pots, pans, and dishes. There are only two of us not twelve and how many muffin tins does a family really need?

Anyway, it’s playoff time for the Boston winter sports teams. So, with no apologies to anybody out there who roots for some other sports laundry--GO CELTICS! And GO BRUINS!

That reminds me that we’ve been having a periodic house guest this winter who probably will summer with us. Grandson Josh’s baseball career at Merrimack College is on hold; he’s on the DL (disabled list) with tendonitis in his left (pitching) shoulder. So, he’s red-shirted this spring so he can still pitch for the next two seasons once the healing & physical therapy is over.
We were lucky enough to have him with us for his 21st birthday! It was the day after the Junior Formal. I was so proud of him in that he was sober and didn’t even have a hangover! We took him to Hooters for lunch and he bought his first “Legal” beer. He and Tom toasted and I drank diet coke!

Speaking of the Spring Formal, he didn’t mention anything until the Wednesday before that he needed a suit! So Papa and I took him to Men’s Warehouse to try to get him fitted in two days! We were successful so the prince went to the dance looking handsome and dashing. With his parents out in Washington State and tailors busy, I don’t know what he was thinking but he wanted to just borrow one of Tom’s jackets! That would have had him looking like an ugly stepson for sure! Tom even got him new shoes!

I finally got out of Boston on a real trip. After my last two attempts were stopped by blizzards and ice storms, I was able to fly out to Washington to visit Jerry and the rest of his family in March. Just to make sure I didn’t forget New England, it snowed the second day I was there! But get this; it was all gone by the next day! Now that’s my idea of a snow storm!

I hadn’t been home in 20 years and looked forward to seeing family and my old stomping grounds. We had a great time. Jerry had to work so our time was precious. He is involved in Umpiring for high-school baseball as well. He had a lot of games while I was there. He had his first girls’ softball game and it was a whole new ball game! The rules are different and the girls kept asking “Mr. Horner this and Mr. Horner that”.

One day we were able to drive down to Lakewood, where I grew up. I was sad to see the beautiful country/suburban area all built up and the places I remembered so clearly in rundown condition. Our old house on the lake needed a lot of repair. My old High school was looking a bit seedy also.
I took a few pictures but really just want to keep the memories.

Jessica and I had the chance to do girly things. We did make-up samples and had pedicures. I put the toe picture in the slide show.

I promise to do a better job keeping this current. Let’s hear it for Spring!!