Apes don't kill apes.....

We got up at the crack of dawn this morning to hit the ever so comfy recliner seats at the Marlton AMC theater and enjoy "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes".  I had low expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised.

My favorite part was that they carefully included easily identifiable characteristics for the main apes characters so I could usually tell who was who as the plot unfolded.

(All hail Caesar!)

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was our 15th wedding anniversary! Hared to believe it's been so long. It seems like yesterday.
We went dancing at Prospectors and everyone there sang to us. It was very sweet (and so is my wonderful husband Tom!)

If it's our anniversary, it must be time for the annual honeymoon to Ohio for the Jamboree in the Hills. Yes!

I think I"ll make it a project to organize photo collections from all the years at JITH and put them in one place.

Oh, guess what? Our new phones have a health feature that includes tracking 10,000 steps a day, so I'll be joining sisters Sue and Jennifer in participating in that. I started yesterday and it turns out there are a lot of steps in country dancing (like I didn't know that!) I walked in at about 3000 and danced out with over 12,000 steps taken! :-)

Waiter, what's that fly doing in my soup?

Spoiler alert! This is really gross.

Okay, I was drinking coffee and felt a lump, so I pulled it out of my mouth...and it was a fly! OMG!
I told Tom and he was really sad for me. (Quick back story...we have had a number of flies hanging out in the house and he has been spraying them like crazy...so chances are this one did a death dive).

I was sooo grossed out. Tom hopped up to get me a new coffee (get back on the horse, as it were...) and I suddenly saw movement on the plate where I had deposited the "lump". The fly was alive. OMG!!!!

I lived. That's the important thing.

Smart Phones are Us

It's July and the livin' is easy....

Our latest acquisitions have been a new ipod for Tom and two Samsung Galaxy 5S's.

We are still exploring the whole world of smart phones and apps and all the things available to us [insert background music: A Whole New World]. I am such a novice...the learning curve is huge!

We celebrated Independence Day with grilled turkey burgers,  a movie (Edge of Tomorrow) and dancing at Prospectors. Guess who wrote the screenplay for the movie? Chris McQuarrie! (I met him when he was working as a guard at the NJEA Summer Leadership Workshop years ago, before he won the Oscar for his screenplay of "The Usual Suspects"). And now I would like to get back in touch with former NJEA staff friends Allan and Kathy McQuarrie.

That's my fourth movie (or so) this summer. :-)
I am happy! (Except for recent actions by our current governor that is negatively affecting NJ's financial stability).

Internet mystery

Ever since yesterday I haven't been able to access the myfamily.com website. This is rather irksome because they are going out of business and I have a limited time to download all the photos I have posted there over the last gazillion years.

I was thinking maybe everybody and their brother (aka family members) were all attempting the same thing at once and it knocked the site off.

But now, I the same "can't load this webpage" is happening for homestead.com and that is more than irksome because it's how I do my websites.

What's happening?!!!

I hope this mystery is solved....and soon!

So while I'm here...new things...we got home from Nashville safely, albeit a day later than planned.
I have the first damage (minimal but aggravating) to my new car. We are finally getting together with The Brunch Group again on Sunday. I had fifteen in attendance at today's DEAR lunch (and bumped into the homefree in NJ Margie Ferrare who was also eating there, coincidentally). Tom has yet to set up a date for his neck surgery. I am heading to Trenton tomorrow with John K and the Gessmann's to talk to legislators. I called a couple of car insurance companies to compare prices and so far my own Plymouth Rock (the Teachers Insurance group) is by far the least expensive. [Personal ad: if you switch to Plymouth Rock, tell them Roberta Sallee sent you...or let me know you are interested and I'll give them your name...I think I get some kind of kickback.... :-) Thanks!]

Tonight we dance! (Even though Tom golfed all day and appears kind of wiped out...!)

No camera...the nightmare

More later with a recap on the whole CMA Music Fest 2014 adventure, but the point here is somehow between the 4 p.m. Jason Michael Carroll performance at the Riverfront Stage and getting into the car to head back to LP Field for the night concert, my camera was lost (forever it turns out).

While certainly not as devastating as many things in the world, it was pretty upsetting to me....Miss Camera herself. We lost all the photos from Day 3 and didn't get to take any photos of Sara Evans, Little Big Town, Darius Rucker , Florida Georgia Line, or (gasp) Keith Urban. (Of course most of the night was really pouring rain we were sitting under (en-poncho-ed) so I don't know how many photos I actually would have taken, but it wa dry  for Keith, who looked adorable as always).

Oh and I had no camera for today (Sunday) either. But now, thanks to Tom, and cutting out of the last day's frivolities early, I have a new camera as a replacement and I am bringing it tonight. (thus ending an incident both sad AND expensive).

We are looking forward to seeing Michelle, Marissa, Katie and whoever else is with them for lunch tomorrow.

CMA's!

We had a really really long drive (13 hours!) to get here, but now we are in Nashville and looking forward to the music and fun-filled week ahead.