Sue's photos

Sue sent me two pix from Christmas on her new photobucket account and now I am pleased to see there are eight! Here's her album URL for future reference and viewing pleasure! http://s249.photobucket.com/albums/gg202/susanmay57/?albumview=slideshow

On Wednesday Tom and I had so much fun! We went to Margie and Mike's and played poker for HOURS! It was big big fun! Patti and Don and Pat were there too, and lots of great snacks! (Seee white chococlate with pretzels and peppermint! Yum, yum!)

A Site is Born

I see I am a bit behind in blogging...Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and Tom and I had big big fun at Gina's with Ann and Dina and Mike and all.

I have new glasses, and I made a new website for BCEA so life could be easier for me in working on it and keeping it updated. At the moment there are two, but hopefully, the new one will get the original BCEA domain name back and it will be an easy transition.
old one-bceanjea.org
new one-bceanjea2.org

Our friend Ganine is still among the missing. Lisa texted us a Merry Christmas, so she is still in contact if not out dancing....

NYC with Marc on the 12th is going to be fun; turning in our crowns at Prospectors New Year's Eve will be sad (but we had a great year's reign!)

It is so close to next year! Wow they go fast now, don't they?

Awesome presentation of White Christmas

In case you haven't seen this, may I present a GREAT rendition of Irving Berlin's White Christmas. http://gpsinformation.info/main/merryxmas.swf

The cartoon was created by Joshua Held in 2002, recording was made by Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters in 1954 (Bill Pinkney sings the bass lead) (Atlantic Records, 1954) and the song was written in 1942.

Meanwhile, it's Christmas Eve Day! Hope you have a good one!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like.....

Guess who is the new replacement BCEA webmaster? Um hmmm....yep, 'tis I. Actually, I had some fun updating the site....too bad it is so user unfriendly though. So frustrating! If you want to see it, it's clickable as www.bceanjea.org

I see I haven't blogged in awhile. Well, that could mean I am too busy having fun or just I refuse to be tied down to a daily routine.... I'll let you wonder about that....

It is hard to believe that today is Christmas Eve Day. In a week it will be next year!!
I am getting used to the 2000's now. I no longer feel like I'm living in the future.

Jill is in Florida, but Dina and Mike are coming here Tuesday so we can all drive together to Gina's. I guess it's time to start shopping...........

It's elf time again!

Remember that really cute office max gimmick where you can "elf yourself" from last year? Well, it's back! Click here --> ROBERTA THE ELF to see mine. And then make one of you and send it to me as a comment on this post. Sound like fun?

Tom got us tickets for Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood in Atlantic City on February 15th. Whoo hoo! Love them!

Dancing at Prospectors was fun last night (after we couldn't go Thursday because it was closed for a private party!!!) but we miss Ganine and Lisa....where are they???

Great new site launched!

My friend Tiffany's brother Ford just launched a really cool website with his friend. They have been working on it for a year and a half at least. I just joined, but I can't wait to check out all the members and their videos. (He has over 2500 already and 12 joined after I did within five minutes, so you know it's growing fast!) It's http://www.wonderhowto.com and I wish them the best of luck with it!


Meanwhile, we are back in NJ, of course and it was cold and wet as expected.
We had a nice visit with Jill, Mike, Dina, Ann, Ted and the crowd at Jill's lovely and delicious Chanukah brunch.

I was happy to catch up with my DIS and BCEA friends at the BCEA Holiday Social.

I don't want to go home!

We are on the screened in porch outside our Fountains resort. It is so beautiful here. The forecast is 85 and sunny and we sure wish we were going to be here for it! As it is, we have the car all packed up and are ready to make the drive to Tampa International for our flight back (hmm...was this the $8.00 leg? :-)



So to get it together before I forget what we did on this awesome vacation (and we are so coming back!)....on the Disney day we park hopped with Harry and Wilma, hitting really good attractions at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and MGM. (Well, MGM was a little hurried....but we did get the big light show and the movie ride).


We did poolside relaxing, sunning, swimming and hot tubbing. On the opposite side of the spectrum, we did the show ICE at Gaylord Palms. 9 degrees was sort of home-like! The ice sculptures were just amazing, and I went down the slide five times! We sort of lost each other for awhile gnome hunting, but we enjoyed exploring the gorgeous hotel!

Best dinners category included: Black Angus, Cape May Beach Buffet, and Boston Lobster Feast. The Rain Forest Cafe lunch at Downtown Disney was the best for lunch.

So now it's time to return to cold, snowy NJ. Harry and Wilma have the right idea. They left to go home to....Florida! :-)

M-I-C....K-E-Y....

Tomorrow is the big Disney World Day for us.
We are going to be park hopping and are looking forward to big big fun.
So far we have been having a lot of fun with Harry and Wilma, much of which involved food! We also had the chance to hang out at the pool enjoying the warm sun Monday and the somewhat cooler sun Tuesday. We hooked up with our mutual dancing friend Judy on the Disney Boardwalk for lunch and ate at the Rain Forest. We had a delicious dinner with the Kaelins at the Cape May Beach Buffet. (The chef there was honored at the NJEA Convention as a successful NJ public school graduate...I had the article with me, but I forgot to ask for him! :-(
There are photos in the offing.
This place (The Fountains) is so awesome!

Watch out, Mickey...here we come!

Tom and I are currently en route to The Fountains, our Bluegreen resort spot in Orlando. The change from 28 degrees and snow in NJ this morning to landing in sunny 80 degree Tampa was a very pleasant one!

Wilma and Harry are coming up to hang with us tomorrow and Tues and Wed we may be doing Disney. It's hard to believe I haven't been here in so long. (I think Gina was 21...!)

We have a nice car and golf clubs and a list of country dance places to check out. No beach, but that's okay....pool spa lake sauna hot tub...that's enough water for now!

Just passing Sea World....see ya!

Help! My check engine light is on and I can't get up...

I guess i am getting up early tomorrow and taking my car for a little oil change/check up. Wish me luck!

I had fun yesterday helping the Eastampton PTA hand out their fundraising orders (and the peanut better cookie dough was delicious!)

Tonight at Prospectors we learned -or tried to- a challenging new dance. Ganine and Patti were there for the fun too.

I am meeting Roxanne at Innova at three, kazoos in hand.

Bad news, good news

Well, the bad news was...when it was time to drive to the DKG meeting Monday night, something was terribly wrong with my car so I had to call a taxi to take me to Moorestown!
Everything else is good news, thank goodness!
*Jean Kutteroff was an honored Woman of Distinction at the meeting. What a great surprise to see her and get back in touch
*Lisa and Ganine are officially part of the Prospectors cruise crowd now
*We had a wonderful time on Thanksgiving with Ann and the outlaws
*Samantha and Ross are coming East so we will get to meet him at long last around Passover/Easter time
*We're going to have a week-end in NYC with Doreen and George on Tom's birthday
*We leave for FL next week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are going to Ann's to be with our favorite outlaws for the holiday. Meanwhile, Tom made turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry, pies...the whole works....before he left for bowling last night. It was quite a feast!
I went to Monday night kick boxing exercise class. That is so much fun!
We have been watching the old episodes of the TV series "24". First Tom rented the whole second year. Now we have the whole first year. It is so much fun not having to wait til the next week to follow up on each cliff hanger ending! We have decided that nuclear bomb threat stories are more interesting than planned assassinations....

Family site revitalized?

I was so happy to see that Jenn posted the Samantha/Ross wedding photos on the www.kayefamily.myfamily.com website First of all the pictures are beautiful! What a wonderful wedding I see it was! Secondly, I am hoping when everyone goes on the site to see the photos, they will realize the potential of such a great family website and start utilizing it!

Meanwhile, no one else from the family has gone on yet.

I am off to dance with the children and their families at Prospectors for Sugarfootin' Sunday.

Remind me to write to Marge Gessmann and see if she and Warren know anything about the new County Supt. that replaced our wonderful Walt Keiss. He is from Monmouth County....hmmm....
I am wondering how the Convention was too.

NJEA Convention

Well, the big story on the NJEA Convention is I'm not there. I was actually thinking of going but there wasn't a BCEA bus this year and although the train sounded easy enough, I have never done it, so that was discouraging, and then I started thinking...why would I need to be there anyway? It is so wonderful for educators but the working ones, not the retired ones! So I hope everyone has a great time and learns a lot. Can't wait to hear all about it and see the photos on the website!

My big activity of the week (other than the dancing and kick boxing) was working for the Election Board again...this time in Westampton. It was a fun group and we managed to fill our fourteen work hours with lively activity. We had almost 500 voters which was a lot better than the 12 we had in Lumberton for the primary! I read Kite Runner, which was really really good and I highly recommend it. I saw so many people I knew--including Sandy (BCEA office manager) en route to the airport, heading for FL, and Mike, Kathryn's old student teacher, Milt Hirshberger, from ABCO days of yore, assorted former colleagues and kids' parents...quite an array!

Samantha got married on Sunday and I can't wait to see the photos and hear all about it! I sure wish we could have been there. I'll bet she was the most beautiful bride ever...and the flower girl must have been adorable too!

We are trying to plan some trip details. My head hurts. But an ironic thing is in the course of discussion, Wilma and I realized that of all the gazillion cruises in the world her red hat ladies' cruise and my dancing Prospectors people cruise are one and the same!

Ok...time to meet Tom for dancing.

But first, thanks to Karen for being the first person ever to comment on my blog! Thank you!!!

Excercise is a kick!

Well, this is kind of narcissistic, but I didn't go to the kick box aerobic exercise class Tuesday night because I wanted my newly cut and styled hair to stay looking good! Plus Tom didn't want to go before he went to his bowling league. But the class on Monday was great! I had so much fun! I am definitely going to take the class on Thursday before we go dancing.

Today I returned to the BCEA office for more election phone calls before I went to Ida's for my hair cut. I stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way to Hip Styles and I think they were happy to get the doughnut treats.

It's fun calling the retired folk with the endorsement information. It's nice, yet surprisingly difficult to actually get a real person on the phone...they are all out. I am getting really good at leaving those short yet poignant answering machine messages.

Jassy and I were on the phone shopping online yesterday. So cute!
Today, they had an earthquake! How scary is that??? But all is well, so they say. They were just a little shaken up (literally).

We finally had the need to turn on the heater yesterday ...and it didn't work! Now (some $$$ later it does thank goodness). Hopefully this will be the last change of season with start up problems..........

Tomorrow is Halloween!!! (How sweet!)

Rain Rain Go Away Dept

Hello again. The rain isn't really that awful...certainly not compared to the horrid fires in Southern CA this week. We just got home from Prospectors and it was pouring, so rain is on my mind.

Dancing is still big big fun....with the best part being able to show other people how. Our King and Queen-hood year is drawing to a close. How sad! We sure have loved getting in for free all the time! We'll miss it!

Kick This!

Today Tom and I played golf. What a gorgeous day!

We went over to the gym we belong to (and hope to go to more!) and ended up participating in an aerobics Kick Boxing class. It was fun! (Bad guys, watch out!)

I saw Sabrina a Cheetah girl on Dancing with the Stars, so of course I had to call Jassy and Jenn. We miss them!

Look what's coming

So now that I have your attention....
The week-end is ebbing to a close. The highlight of today is Tom's replacement new lamp (the old one blew up!) and I will be so excited to be able to see again. He went golfing today and I got to sleep later for a change.
There was no dancing today and since we blew off last night, sadly, and there is not even a Moose lesson on for tomorrow, we are bereft of dance-like activity until Wednesday. Maybe...maybe ....we can go to the gym. Wouldn't that be a change of pace???

You're in Good Hands with.....TP&AF....

Today I got up at the crack of dawn and met friends outside the BCEA Office. We headed up to East Windsor for the annual meeting.

It was great fun seeing so many old friends after all this time. Herb just retired (but will still be Union County President until his term expires). They didn't have a financial report for us and there were a lot of questions about the new Educators State Health Benefit Plan.

Yesterday we had big big fun dancing with Ganine and Jamie, Lisa, and Robin. Now we are heading there again.

I found an animated gif site
for Doreen.http://www.animated-gifs.eu/leisure-games/001.htm

Get your vacation from Margie!

I had to change my eye doctor appointment yesterday morning, and then I went to the BCEA Office for the small meetings Roger King put together for BCREA.

Oh, my goodness! The BCEA Office is so different!!! They have a gorgeous new kitchen, everything is really bright (they painted the dark panels), and....there has been a big officer shift.

Gary resigned, Mary left the Second Vice President position and went to First Vice President, and Donna O'Malley has now taken up the gauntlet in my old position as Second VP. Congratulations and best of luck to both!

The meetings were very interesting. My best information to share is that Burlington County residents over 60 years old can apply for a safety visit from County and they offer free supplies as needed. These include dead bolt locks, charlie bars, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, visible house number plates, door peep holes, a blinking light, and more. (I put the info in my file for future reference!)

Sandy and Conni went for lunch at Prospectors. Delicious!

I went to Margie Ferrare's new business celebration. A lot of the description of her business opportunity sounded like our Market America unfranchise business (See our website (http://www.tomrosallee.unfranchise.com ) and we sure wish her luck!
(We already booked the San Francisco car rental with her YTB company and it was great!).

After the party, I met Tom at Prospectors and we danced up a storm. We are looking forward to seeing Lisa and Ganine there tonight!

Dancing Tonight!

Okay, I'm back. Don't expect stuff every day! That's too much like a job! But...I don't want you to think I'm not loving my retirement every single day, because I am. Even if I get lazy and don't do much......well, I CAN! That's the good part!

It was so much fun going out to visit our family in California. We hadn't been there in so long! I'm just sorry we didn't get to be with Caitlin and Vivien in person, too, but it was nice to be in contact anyway. And Jenn and Jassy and Samantha, Sue, Cody, Zoe [no Patrick :-( , Jodie, Chris, Gina and little Cait are now "with" us in closer memory.

I put all the photos I had on a small slide show on the http://www.rosallee.com website. But you can click that to get to the regular size ....and a lot of my other photos too.

I have photos all over the internet...from google to flickr, shutterfly, snapfish, photobucket....it was bad enough before, but when yahoo closed down it got really crazy. That's another good reason that I made the rosallee website - to consolidate (or have a location finder/index for the scattered websites, blogs, and photos anyway!) It's a bold plan...but it could happen!
(and in conjunction with that bold plan is the project to salvage all the old class photos from years gone by and get them digital too). (This could take a really long time!)

Okay so the big story for today is dancing tonight. Tomorrow is loaded with appointments, meetings, and travel party, and more dancing. Whoohoo!

Saturday is the TP&AF meeting. Maybe I can pick up some investment tips, eh? (and more dancing!)

http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/06/did-you-know-20.html

Sometime when you have about five minutes, take the time to view the embedded youtube video on the blogspot site linked above.

The story behind it is just as amazing as the information in it.

Wow.

Back in the saddle (aka New Jersey) again

Our last night in California was filled with relatives and Chinese take-out. It was fun! Gina and little Caity, Jenn and Jassy, Sue, Jodie, Chris, Tom, and I enjoyed the delicious repast and good company.

Jennifer and Jassy left for school the next morning and we got up shortly thereafter and packed. We followed a convoluted plan for getting the bags checked in and car returned with a minimum of bag carting trevails.

Our flights were uneventful except for the great postcards in the Phoenix airport that made me want to come back and visit there!

We watched two movies on the laptop on the way from Phoenix to Philadelphia ("The Wedding Wars" and "The Peaceful Warrier") and pretty much crashed when we got home.

Today we played golf and ended up not going to see Van Zant at Prospectors...(don't ask!)

Tom has apparently been inspired by Jenn's acquisition of her IPOD to explore all the possibilities on his. Can it possibly be true that you can only use Adobe to get photos on an ipod? Seems pretty monopolistic to me! (But then, what is itunes but entrapment???)

Bring back October 4th

It has been brought to my attention that this blog has a glaring omission! My apologies to all concerned!

On Jennifer's birthday, Oct. 3rd, Tom and I flew in from NJ, picked up our car and drove to Jennifer's school. There was a very happy reunion with Jenn, Jassy, and us with lots of hugging and exclamations of delight and Happy Birthday to Jennifer. We hung out for awhile and met lots of school friends, and even got to watch some great dance acts at the Recording Studio at the after school care room.

Unbeknownst to Jennifer, Jassy had a huge surprise on tap for her mom. The plan was a cake by friend and neighbor Sheila to be brought over while I took Jennifer away on a flimsy excuse (we ended up at Acapulco for the neighborhood happy hour) and Sue, Tom, and Jassy decorated. After they texted and called for us to return, we did.

Jennifer was sooo surprised and pleased! She couldn't believe how Jass had managed to pull it all off so well!

We took Jennifer to Tao Tao's for dinner and gave her the IPOD all sibs had chipped in to buy her (Jeff's great idea).

I think she had a great birthday...even better than just getting to see us! (LOL)

Another Day in Sunny CA

Yesterday we got to visit with our cousin, Samantha. It was so great seeing her!!! (She came in on the train from San Francisco because of all the extra cars in the city for the air show).

We had lunch at Macaroni Grille and Sue met us there too. The lunch was delicious and so was our reunion of sorts.

Late last night Tom and I headed out to country dancing venue two: The Saddle Rack. It is now in Fremont and a big deal place. It was more like New Year's Eve than we liked, but we were still glad we went.

Beach today, we're thinking...

San Francisco and The Rodeo

Yesterday Tom and I got up bright and early (relatively) and headed to San Francisco from Sue's. We couldn't get tickets to Alcatraz, but we followed our phone's directions to the Golden Gate Bridge and had fun at the Presidio learning about it and viewing that monumental structure (and Alcatraz from afar). (Did you know the Bank of America funded it when no one else would take a chance during the Depression?)

We had sundaes at Ghiradelli and walked around the pier and ships on Fisherman's Wharf.

A big "extra" of the day was watching the Blue Angels rehearsing for this week-end's airshow. I never saw (or heard!) anything like it!

Sad report: no more Blue Chip cookie store just off Fisherman's Wharf. :-(

It was sunny in the city (yay!) but cold (as expected!)

We got home to Jenn's (again praising our Verizon GPS all the way!), went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, and then went dancing at The Rodeo in San Jose. It was great! We had a chance to dance a lot and had big big fun.

Today we are looking forward to seeing Samantha and going to the Beach House.

(If I didn't write anything about Sue's yet, suffice it to say she and the kids look great, her house is gorgeous, her cooking is unsurpassed and Chabot College is sooooo lucky to have her! Scrabble with the neighbors was fun. We missed Patrick and Caitlin, loved Cody's school project on cells, and hope his team won at Homecoming).

Greetings from Chicago

Hi! I am sitting on the floor across from Gate 12 at Midway Airport, Chicago. Tom and I are waiting for our next plane, set to depart at 9:35, carrying us to San Jose, CA.

It's Jennifer's birthday and we are so excited to visit her, Jassy, Sue and all the Mays in town, Jodie and the available Arnolds, and Samantha, the betrothed!!!

My pre-vacation activities included the NJREA Fall luncheon/meeting and helping the Eastampton PTA with their school Book Fair set up and class visits. (Fun!) Of course, we spent a lot of time dancing at Prospectors, too. Ganine, Lisa, Christie and her cronies, are so much fun to dance with. Their enthusiasm is contagious! Tom has been bowling up a storm, too. (He has to be ready to dazzle the May clan as his reputation precedes him. I, on the other hand, have been touted as a great Scrabble player. Uh oh!)

We heard from Miriam and Tom's mom in Arkansas. :-) They are doing well, having fun with Kaelin, the adorable baby, and bursting with pride over Jessica, the 23 year old (?!!) teacher!

I have been pleased to hear from a respectable amount of DIS staff and friends regarding my call for contact re the DIS myfamily.com website. I hope it takes off!

More Fun with Dick and Jane....

We never made it to the beach. En route on Wednesday, the car started making unGodly sounds and we had to pull over and get towed home. (One loaner car and three days later we got it back. Lucas Dodge admits it may have been a little their fault that the caliper fell off, since they serviced the car recently....)

We are still dancing up a storm at Prospectors with Ganine, Lisa, and a growing cadre of newbies. How fun!

The NJREA Fall Luncheon was held at a very impressive Hamilton Fire House. The highlight of the meeting was hearing about the new Health Benefits Commission and upcoming changes (for the better.........) I picked up Conni and Suzanne drove us (and Judi) up. Too bad I have to miss next week's BCREA luncheon/meeting, but CA will be fun too!

I enjoyed working with the PTA folks today, helping to set up for the Eastampton Schools Book Fair. I'm helping out Tuesday morning, too.

To the Beach!

It is almost October, but the temperature is heading to 87 degrees today, so we are heading to the beach! How fun to be retired!!!!

Just to catch up a bit....Sunday was our brunch with the brunch group...but we were the only ones who showed up at Prospectors at 11. !!!! It seems the brunch was cancelled, but everybody thought someone else was notifying us, so we never got The Word. We felt quite out of the loop, but had a good time anyway. Better luck next time!

I went back and danced later. It was lots of fun! Joe and Ganine and I practiced "Waltz Across Texas" in the Prospectors parking lot after Sugarfootin' Sunday was over. It was so much fun!

Last night I went to a PartyLite(candles) shindig at Kim Hummell's house in Burlington. I was there under kind of false pretenses (but I told her!). I really just wanted to see her and the girls. Oh, my God! They are soooo adorable and beautiful! I brought an album of old photos and they were amazed to see their mom, poppop, nanny, Aunt Margie, Aunt Patti and all (and McKenzie, too, of course!)

I finally talked to Jennifer about the upcoming trip and she is going to be our trip planner. (We love Jennifer!) We love Sue, too, and I know she is huge on the agenda!!!

Okay.....off to Seaside! Hasta luego!

Week-end fun (Sat. night report)

Friday, Tom and I went golfing. We had a lot of fun with another twosome, Brian and Jason. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed it to the fullest!

We rested briefly, and then went to Prospectors. Ganine and Lisa, our new protegee/friends were there and we did a lot of dancing. We stopped at the new dancing place on the way home and didn't leave until closing time!

Today I worked the Eastampton Fun Day event (I covered the frog jump!) and took a lot of photos. The Township did a great job, as usual. It rained a few times, but it didn't stop us from having fun, and mostly it was sunny.

We did the dual dancing scene again tonight. The new place has a really nice new dance floor!

Tomorrow is brunch with the crew and Sugarfootin Sunday.

Monday night is a basket party at Kim's and Thursday is the NJEA Retirees Fall Luncheon meeting.

I want to go to school, too, and pick up all the old photo albums I left there. I'm thinking I'll use them for some sort of project...at the very least a web page dedicated to the teaching years....

I am so glad the stock market went back up!!! Now let it stay there....getting higher would be great too! :-)

Making new friends and reuniting with old

I have been having a lot of fun since last I wrote!

Don't expect daily blogging for two reasons. One, it would be boring for you, the reader, and two it would be like a mandatory assignment for me, and I don't do that anymore! LOL

I've seen two country artists in concert-Luke at Michael's and Steve Holy at Prospectors. It is always a treat to see and hear these rising singers up close and personal!


Prospectors was the scene for meeting some new friends and up and coming dancers,
Ganine, Lisa, and former student, now teacher, Christie
and her colleagues. We are all meeting up again tomorrow for some lessons and fun at the club.








It was a great week-end because George and Doreen drove down to visit and party with us there too!

Tom and I played golf in beautiful weather a couple of times and are probably going out again tomorrow too. (How wonderful to finally be able to enjoy the great outside anytime I want!)

I went to ABCO today to deal with the new Time Share loan stuff and bumped into Jean Zensen. What a coincidence. She is going to be at the NJREA Lunch next week too.

Ok...see what I mean about boring (well, for you, not me!) Sorry! Back to pogo! LOL

First Day of School 2007

Tuesday was the first day of school and I went on my Second Annual First Day of School Trip to Seaside.
It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed both it and the freedom of retirement that allowed me to be there.

Soon after I got home, I headed out to the Verizonwireless store for my second phone lesson. I didn't really learn too much new, but I met a new friend, Diane.

From there, I bravely drove into Philadelphia and found Michael's Cafe, where Luke was playing, and All My Friends Say Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! ($12 and a free CD, signed! whoohoo!)

Big party for Ann!

We had such a great time at Gina's house and the party she threw for her mom, Ann!
It was quite a reunion for some of us who haven't been in touch for over 20 years.
It was a huge photo op. My take on the photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/rosallee/AnnS70thBirthdayParty

Delta is ready when you are?

Poor Tim! As if the weather delayed flights from Memphis to us in Myrtle Beach weren't enough, the way home was (still is!) even worse. His 5 p.m. flight to Atlanta was delayed so much, he not only missed the first scheduled connecting flight, but the one two and a half hours later, too. Now it appears he is confirmed on a flight tomorrow morning at 10: 37 a.m. I have no idea if they put him up somewhere, or where. Meanwhile Linda and some friends drove the 3 hours to Memphis to pick him up ....I don't know what happened to them either. :-(

Meanwhile, the good news is....we met another online friend in person. Rinnytintinny of megalottso fame lives in Myrtle Beach and she came to the airport to check us out. (Safe, public place in case we were serial killers...but I think we passed the muster!) We really liked her, and daughter Emily too!

We added a day to our vacation here in Myrtle Beach and should be heading out for home tomorrow. We had a lot of fun!

Megalottso friends, SC style

I am happy to report that we have just finalized plans to meet one of our word-whomping megalottso friends, Erin. She lives in Myrtle Beach and we couldn't miss this opportunity, could we? How exciting! (Hi, rinny!)

Insert Jaws themesong here

Today we went on Lynn's friend's fishing boat (his company is Aces Up Fishing, if you are in Myrtle Beach and looking for a good time). It was really fun and the highlight was our final catch- a 7 and a half foot tiger shark!

Stuff

I am not a very persistent blogger...and I am in a hurry now...rushing to Prospectors. Tom and I were there yesterday and had fun. He is tired from golf today, but I am ready to dance!

Lunches out are getting to be a big thing in my retirement, I see and this week is no exception. I was delighted to be invited to Marcia's for the returning travellers' get together.

Tomorrow I am lunching with Suzanne and Judi, and Saturday, Tom and I are meeting up with several online friends for lunch in Atlantic City. (Ah, food!)

Except for the constant downward spiraling of the stock market numbers, life is good. (Insert prayers for market recovery here)

Friends Contact

Tom and I are planning to rummage through and clear some of our "stuff". It is a daunting prospect, but we can do it!

Doreen is back from visiting friend Valerie in FL and we are glad she got back safely.

Cory, who retired at the same time as I did, has not only moved to Ocala, FL and settled in fully (and Ed is all recovered, healthwise, thank goodness!) but has gotten herself a job teaching third grade in the public school there.....and starts Monday!!! omg!!! (No first day of school trip to Seaside for her!!!)

I saw Bourne Ultimatum yesterday while Tom was at golf and enjoyed it. Just the fight scenes were abundant and really hard to follow. (I was pleased to see a reviewer note the same point!)

My sister Sue celebrated a very happy birthday yesterday, it seems, by attending the latest Tim and Faith concert with her lovely daughters, Cait and Zoe. I'm sure they loved it. (We loved last year's and him on the cruise in Jan. too).

Silver linings

The Minnesota bridge tragedy and so many other sad incidents fill the news these days.
I got back in touch with an old Minneapolis friend....she is okay....and it brought to mind all the wonderful people I have met over the years and lost touch with. I wish we could have a big reunion!!!

We had a busy weekend with dancing, Randi's awesome pig roast, the Brad Paisley concert, and brunch at the Pop Shoppe in Collingswood with Jill and Mike and Dina and Ted and Ann.

We're having a heat wave. Stay cool!

Trying to keep cool

On Wednesday, Tom and I finally ventured out to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor (We have a season pass, you understand....!) Hey! It's only August!

We did the wave pool and the lazy river. An impromptu Guiness Book of World Records level event broke out as 80 percent of the folks tubing joined hands and tubes for a "train" that encircled the entire watery attraction. It was very cool!
(Just one sour note....there's always this stereotypical pooh pooh-ing nay sayer around.....one of the female lifeguards. Not an open minded person.) Other than that person, everyone ...including all the other lifeguards....joined in the spirit of the thing. Though totally undocumented, I am proud that Tom and I were a part of it!

Good friends, good lunch

Wilma and Joanne are in town, meeting up with Delran friends for their annual summer vacation jaunt.

Tom and I had dinner with Wilma and Harry at Prospectors Wednesday night (we thought they would dance, too, but it was not to be; we did, though and had big big fun).

Tom and I both went the Dr. route on Wednesday too. I will be back in physical therapy starting Monday...this time for my left shoulder and it turns out Tom's pain is from shingles! poor thing. I hope it gets better fast.

In other yesterday news, I booked a flight for Tim from Memphis to Myrtle Beach and he will be joining us on our vacation there at the end of August. :-)


So today, after the dentist (look, ma, no cavities!), and a Market America moment (my dental hygienist expressed interest in nutritional supplements, specifically minerals), I drove to Fairview Diner to meet Wilma, Joanne, Rosina, and Jean Zensen for lunch. Surprise! Archie, Jean Lombardi, and Marcia were there too! It was a great reunion!
And a good photo op!








I had a whomp marathon in lieu of dancing at Prospectors (maybe Tom will be feeling better tomorrow. I hope so. Poor Tom.)

Day 3 Jambo

Toby Keith was the highlight of an entertaining and sound filled Jamboree kind of day I had a lot of visits and comments from other JITH attendees as I sat in the sun reading my Harry Potter book (no, I still haven't finished it).
We caught up with the Michelle and Dave crew again, and also the Bill, Jeff, Patrick (without Patrick) crowd. A really nice part of annual attendance at the Jamboree in the Hills is reuniting with all the wonderful people we've met over the years.
Tomorrow is the last day. It goes so fast!
Hello to Doreen, George, and Sam in Disney World!

Jamboree and Harry Potter

Yesterday was sunnier, but surprisingly cool on the hill. It was band day at JITH with Outlaw, 38 Special, Marshall Tucker, and Charlie Daniels.



We were happy to run into our old friends from last year, Michelle, Dave, and the crowd.





We had a lot of fun on Day 2.




Then it was off to Walmart to buy the new Harry Potter after midnight!

(No, I didn't finish reading it yet!)

Jamboree Day 1

We left NJ about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night and arrived in St. Clairsville, OH at 5:30 a.m. Tom had to drive through some heavy rains while I slept.

We went to Undo's for the annual lunch buffet ritual, and then headed to the JITH grounds to get wristbanded and buy t-shirts and check out the area. I have never been in a shorter line (aka what line?) Maybe the weather threats scared them off...

We went back for the evening shows of Kelly Pickler, Taylor Swift, Jack Ingram, and Brad Paisley. They were all good. The weather was not as bad as expected and we didn't melt. (Thank goodness!) People watching prevailed once again this year as the top rated activity.




Tomorrow's roster is light and more rock than I am used to here.

Tomorrow after midnight, the new Harry Potter book goes on sale. I am so in line for it!

I saw the articles regarding Jim Duda on the Delran website (http://www.delranschools.com) The tribute was so touching....

Countdown to JITH

Tomorrow is our last full day before heading out for the Ohio event.

Very sad news came today...Jim Duda, the DMS principal had a massive heart attack and died. Someone called to ask me if what they had heard was true and I called around and discovered, sadly, that it was. He will certainly be missed....

Over the last few days Tom and I danced and played golf and saw the new Harry Potter movie. I missed dancing on Sunday....because there wasn't any (as I had previously thought).

I am in contact with most of the sibs, all of whom will be in CA for the next three weeks or so, sans us. But our thoughts will be with them. (It would be very cool if we could hook up with Jeff and his crew in Las Vegas after the Jamboree, but i don't see that feasibly happening....)

Uh oh!

Guess what? It turns out the Verizon wireless store people did NOT change our plan properly. Luckily we decided to see what it looked like on the website and caught it. A very nice online Verizon person I called (named Luke) straightened it out for us.
Moral of the story: Be wary!

Prospectors tonight (Friday, the 13th) was fun. We didn't win Toby Keith tickets, but we did get tickets to the Marshall Tucker band show in DE for Sunday. Sounds like fun. (They are going to be at the Jamboree in the Hills, too. (So is Toby Keith!)

Nothing much...and you?

Yesterday we had fun golfing with a new friend, Dave. It was a gorgeous day and we walked all the holes. (I usually grab a cart for the second half!) Avoiding the sprinklers was a goal of mine, but it reminded me of childhood loving the sprinkler days!

Then we went back to the Verizon Wireless store to change our recently changed calling plan (?!!) and buy wireless Blue Tooth headphones for Tom. (He is such a gadget guy!)

We almost went dancing as we passed our favorite site, Prospectors, but circumstances beyond our control overrode that decision. (We had danced impromptu-ly the night before in sandals. Not easy!)

The ironic event of the day today was getting an email from Gina letting us know about this upcoming Country Cruise sponsored by Prospectors next January. Little did she know that we are already booked to go on it! Whoo hoo!

Yesterday, I wished for the stock market to go up and ...lo and behold...best ever high! Today I am wishing for World Peace.......

New blog

I decided to start afresh with the blog bit, and today is the day!
However, just for the record and my own never-get-rid-of-anything comfort level, here are my old sites of yesteryear (through yesterday): aroseisarose, experimentalteacher, and Mrs. Sallee's Class.

It's 11 a.m. and time for the daily word whomp tourney. Doreen and I will have to continue the diversify your portfolio discussion afterward. Or, with luck, later today after Tom and I get home from the beach.

Ardent prayer to the stock market: stay up for awhile, please!