Farewell 2007

I think I’ve lost my entire blog audience of about three by not posting for about two months. But I am feeling introspective again as the year comes to a close so I figured I would check in.

Rich and I got to spend about 11 hours in the car in the past five days traveling to Pennsylvania and to and from New Jersey, so we had lots of time to chat and check in and recap and overanalyze and digest the year and look forward to the next and decide what made us happy and what we would change and talk future babies and vacations and work and marriage and all that fun stuff.

All in all 2007 treated us very well. To recap:

We went to an amazing spa in Mexico in the winter.

We traveled to Jeremy W’s wedding in England in the spring.

Hazel from Ireland came to Vermont to visit in the fall and we spent a few days alone up at the house to celebrate our anniversary and treasure the fall colors.

Inbetween weddings and traveling and a couple of working nightmare weekends, we had great weekends up in Vermont with friends and family in the summer: Eric and Heather and Hilly and Conway and the Aichroths and the Nortons and the Wallers and Jer and Pee Wee and Marian Rob and Felicia and Poppa Kapp and Michele and Soupy and Kim and Sean and the Pagliarolis (not to mention Peggy and Peter spending the week there while we were in the ‘Cha)…

Rich became a normal-hour working Engineer at the plant and finally feels challenged and respected and likes the people he works with and, for the most part, the work he does.

Rich and I spent lots of fun time together. We played lots of tennis, learned bridge and joined a league and became members of the Rochester Broadway Theater League with friends.

I became active in Hadassah and met lots of amazing women whom I now call my friends. He started running and ran a half marathon with me as his biggest cheerleader.

We dined, we movied, we spent quality time alone and with friends, we laughed, we cried (Okay.. make that I cried. My manly man does not shed a tear EVER), we enjoyed eachother and learned from eachother and continued to learn about eachother. We enjoyed every moment with our adorable pups.

I could go on for hours, but I won’t. You get the picture. I am blessed as anything to have an amazing husband, a great job, a house in the country, a family we see often, friends far and near, and a list of memories that grows with the passage of time.

Of course, the year was not without its share of frustration. I spent way too much time with throat ailments and stomach issues. My mom’s been gone five years as of February and I spent a lot of time thinking about what she and my dad would have thought about my life now and I still cry when I think about them. And although I am sooo thrilled that my brother is having a baby, I am saddened when I think that it was my mom’s dream to be a grandmother and she will not be around to see the birth of Jer’s baby. When we were all up in Vermont for Thanksgiving, we talked baby for much of the weekend and being that it was a family holiday, I think I had parents on the brain and Jer and I ended up at eachother’s throats the whole weekend (ie in the form of fights about things such as acceptable Scrabble words)…

But all in all, it was a good year and we can only hope that 2008 brings more of the same. Right now we are in the midst of planning a dive trip to Curacao. I can not wait to escape the Cha this winter! And for those who incessantly ask, we will be revisiting the “are we ready to add to the family” conversation in a few months. We will have some people over to say farewell to 2007...

Above are pics from a Hadassah Hanukkah brunch, Tgiving in VT, Christmas at the PKapps… and my visit with Hilly, Conster, brunch with the Safians and a visit with the Pag family.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2008 filled with lots of laughter and love.

Happy Halloween

So again a few weeks have gone by. Fall is in full swing and though the weather’s been warm, I see more and more leaves each day falling off the trees.

Rich and I went to Vermont for 10 days to celebrate our four year anniversary and to celebrate the colors of fall. We had a wonderful 10 days. We went for an amazing anniversary dinner in Manchester at Mistrals at Toll Gate. We took some nice walks with and without the dogs. We went shopping. We leaf peeped. Then Hazel came from Ireland from Tuesday night through Sunday and that was a great time as well. As the dollar sux against all currencies, Hazel bought the entire town of Manchester. We went out to dinner, barbecued, had tons of fresh cider and cider donuts made while we waited, took ridiculous pictures with various pumpkins, went sightseeing, went on a covered bridge tour of Southern Vermont, did additional leaf peeping, ate some yummy apple pie, and just laughed and enjoyed our time away. Rich and Hazel went on a hike one day. I decided not to go after climbing about ten slippery steep stone steps and looking down. That was it for me. I crawled my way down and went for a latte’.

On Sunday, we sent Hazey on her way to explore Boston before she flew home. She was awfully excited about hearing the accent aloud and in its fully glory, and had lots to say about it here.

It’s nice to have been home the past two weekends. I am just about traveled out. This weekend we went with our friends Alex and Logan to see Gone Baby Gone. Rich and I both liked it and Alex and Logan, parents of two little ones, found it extraordinarily disturbing. Saturday Rich and I went for a hike and did some things around the house.

Oh lord, I got distracted watching Peter Griffin sing the “Full Blown Aids” song on Family Guy. Cracks me up every time I see this one.

Anyway… as I was saying,.. Saturday Rich and I went for a hike. The leaves for pretty and it felt nice. Sunday we had my friend Mike and his family over. His daughter Anna is the most adorable 3 year old you have ever seen. She’s so polite and sweet and funny. Look how cute she is! (Baby Laura is cute too, but at six months all she does is smile. heehee)

Things are getting hectic at work and I am just not prepared to get busy again. I should work this weekend but we’re going to Vermont with my friend Dave. It’ll be the last time until Thanksgiving. Today is Halloween and, much to Rich’s dismay, I was THAT MOM who dresses up her dogs in costume. It was hilarious. My poor poor dogs. Murphy kept tripping on his cape.

That’s about it… I just saw a mouse in my kitchen and will now call Rich out of bed to try and catch it. Happy Halloween!

Again, I disappeared for almost a month. I soo didn’t mean to. Fall time is busy… as we are constantly traveling back and forth to Vermont. When we’re home, we’re doing laundry, paying bills, and getting ready for the following weekend.

Two weekends ago we stayed home so Rich could do the half marathon. I think I might have been expecting the New York City marathon. I made a big poster and my friend Peggy and I stood on the side of the road and yelled to all the runners. Honestly, we were the only people there besides one or two volunteers with megaphones. For the record, we were much louder and much more entertaining than the actual megaphone-carrying volunteers. Rich and his friend Emily did very well. I was especially impressed by my husband considering he had terrible shin splints and barely trained. Last weekend Jer and Lee came up for Yom Kippur. Rich and I were late getting to Vermont and I actually had to eat my pre-fast meal in a Troy, New York diner. Oy vey. Jer and I fasted and I actually managed to drag the three of them to temple. We love our little hippy temple in Vermont.

Break the fast was bagel yums.. My brother went slightly nuts with the lox and all that bagel fishy stuff considering 1) Rich doesnt like lox and most jewish food for that matter 2) Pee wee’s pregnant and cant eat it and 3) I eat very little of it. But what I did eat was yummy. Boy, do I miss a good bagel. A Rochester bagel is the equivalent of bread with a hole in the middle. Blech.

Last weekend was Lehigh weekend up in the Cha. We had 9 adults and 4 kids (including one baby) up there. It was totally chaos and totally hysterical. I LOVED seeing my friends with their kids. Every one has such a distinct personality. It was just amazing. Stacy’s kids put her on a leash at one point. By the end of the kid-filled days, all the adults were so desperate for play time that we sat outside on the porch in 40 degree weather with like 18 layers on. We finally brought the outside table into the kitchen so we could frolic as far away from the bedrooms as possible without being outside. It was a very fun weekend.

On Thursday night, we leave for 11 days in Vermont. It will be amazing to not have to rush around and get sad that we have to leave to go back to the ‘Cha before we even settle in. Hazel comes in from Dublin on Tuesday night. Woohooo… we can’t wait!

In other non-news… I’ve had a very easy few months at work, but I have a feeling that after vacation, I will get back into swamped mode. I am not looking forward to that at all.

Post Labor Day Blues

Besides the fall coming, the absolute only good thing about Labor Day weekend coming and going is the fact that my coworkers put away their really loud floppy annoying open toed shoes until next May.

Honestly. That's it. Everything else about it being September sucks.

Stole This From A Friend....

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought? I need to lose 1235987097512398 pounds.
2. How much cash do you have on you? $5. Rich is Mr. Moneybags. He leaves me cash when I need it.
3. What's a word that rhymes with DOOR? Whore.
4. Favorite planet? Pluto. I feel bad that it was demoted.
5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone? Alex N.
6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone? No clue. Just got a new phone and I'm experimenting with them.
7. What shirt are you wearing? Purple polo.
8. Do you label yourself? Sure. Overweight. Loud. Or do you mean nicknames? My name of the month seems to be “The Kapper” much to Rich’s chagrin.
9. Name the brand of the shoes you're currently wearing: I'm barefoot but was wearing Crocs earlier today.
10. Bright or Dark Room? dark – It’s dark out and there isn’t very good lighting in the den.
11. Question 11 apparently got lost.
12. What does your watch look like? It’s a pretty plain silver Tiffany’s watch with a rectangular face that was given to me by the CEO of my last company as a gift for doing a special project. For the record, that was 7 years ago.
13. What were you doing at midnight last night? Sleeping
14. What did your last text message you received on your cell phone say? "Xanadu?" Rich and I were playing the Geography game on the way home from Vermont last weekend and I cheated and texted my brother for an X.
15. Where is your nearest 7-11? None in the Cha.
16. What's a word that you say a lot? Torture.
17. Who told you he/she loved you last? My sweet husband.
18. Last furry thing you touched? Parky.
19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days? Two different prescriptions each night.
20. How many rolls of film do you need developed? Zero. But I tried just today to get the 222 pictures in my camera printed. Used the machine at the Wegmans, picked them out, edited some… stood there for 25 minutes only to find the machine was not working. GRRRRRR.
21. Favorite age you have been so far? Not really sure.
22. Your worst enemy? My bad genes and lack of willpower.
23. What is your current desktop picture? Some generic picture of a field with a pretty blue sky.
24. What was the last thing you said to someone? “Are you okay, Parky?” to my dog when I heard him choke on his water.
25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly, what would it be? Hmmm… I am going to take the leap that I could earn big bucks if I could fly, so I'll choose flight.
26. Do you like someone? Very much so.
27. The last song you listened to? Justin Timberlake and Kermit singing "Rainbow Connection" on a Saturday Night Live rerun skit.
28. What time of day were you born? 7:10 AM
29. What's your favorite number? 10
30. Where did you live in 1987? Edison, NJ
31. Are you jealous of anyone? Yes. Pathetically so. Mostly people that still have parents that are alive.
32. Is anyone jealous of you? I hear Angelina Jolie is jealous of me.
33. Where were you when 9/11 happened? Random House: 1540 Broadway in midtown NYC not understanding what all the fuss was about when everyone ran to watch the TV in the conference room.
34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money? Thankfully, I can not remember the last time I used one.
35. Do you consider yourself kind? Very kind and very bitchy, depending on my mood.
36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be? My forehead. It would be my thumb and forefinger making the loser sign.
37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be? French although I suck at the accent.
38. Would you move for the person you loved? Already have, hence the ‘Cha thing. I’d do it again in a second.
39. Are you touchy-feely? Hell yeah.
40. What's your life motto? Crap, no idea. I’ll have to think about this one.
41. Name three things you have on you at all times: my glasses, my ring, my little green wallet (at least when I’m out)
42. What's your favorite town/city? Sydney, Australia? I have a few.
43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash? No clue, it’s definitely been awhile!
44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it? Rich and I send eachother postcards to home whenever we go on vacation. Does that count? That would have been in May. If not, then I sent a letter to myself from a spa in Mexico in January.
45. Can you change the oil on a car? No, but Rich does.
46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her? Nothing for about 15 years. I have tried to google him occasionally just for fun but I can never find him.
47. How far back do you know your ancestry? As in know about or have met? Met my great grandfather when I was little. Rest were dead by the time I was born. But I know ABOUT all my great grandparents in lots of detail!
48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy? Wedding in May. Wore a black suit with a frilly little black skirt. Feet hurt all night. Changed at some point.
49. Does anything hurt on your body right now? No
50. Have you ever been burned by love? Absolutely.
51. Do you have a crush on any bloggers? Yes. Fluffy Bunny. Miss you Hazey! :-)
52. Where would you like to live? Vermont. Will live there full time at some point.

La La La

I know I haven’t written in awhile, but I just need to tell you all that I am completely in love with Troy Bolton from High School Musical. Honestly, I so wish high school was really like how it’s depicted on this show. Now I really did like high school and have endless memories of cutting class and partying and just being a plain idiot like most high school kids. However, there is something magical about High School Musical. How I would have liked to sing my high school angst away. When Steve decided to date Ali instead of me despite the fact that I had a crush on him and his flashy two door MR2 for what seemed like decades, I wish he would have started dancing in the streets and belting me a happy tune. (Especially because Ali was such a mean girl.) When I got recommended for the National Honors Society based on academics and then rejected based on “attitude and behavior”, I wish my mom would have sang me an “It’s Okay” ballad, instead of crying of disappointment. How I wish I had a group friends that were so real and caring and warm and who forgave and sang to me at the end of each episode. Honestly, this show is intoxicating in a 16 year old mentality sort of way. And yes, I’m 35, but I have no qualms about making sure my DVR records every episode. It’s really a feel good show and I recommend that each of you tune in.

Other than that, this summer has sped by at the speed of Lindsay Lohan’s car after a few cocktails. We’ve had some really fun weekends in Vermont, the most recent of which was with Jer and a 15 week pregnant Pee Wee. I cant believe my little brother is going to be a father and I cant wait. Hazeywoo is coming to visit in October and we’ll all spend the week in Vermont. Cant wait. Rich and I are sooo excited for our little Irish lass to visit. Woohoo! Other than, my friend Jenn had just had a baby and he’s awfully cute. People are just giving birth all over the place. I better get on that one soon.

Not much else to report. I cant believe it’s the end of August already. I actually saw a tree with its leaves changing colors already on my way home from work today. Hello! Damn Rochester.

Summer nights....

So, it’s Monday… which usually means tennis and my one attempt at exercise for the week, but it was in the 90s today and tennis was canceled for fear that someone, probably myself, would pass out cold from heat exhaustion. Therefore, as it’s my friend Cathy’s one night a week away from her kids, we drank instead. This isn’t exactly the recipe for healthy living, but I obliged knowing that Cathy would be sad if she had to face her unruly girls after a week’s vacation from work and 24 hour a day mommydom.

I find that in the summer I drink a lot more than I do all year long. I’m really not a big drinker at all. This weekend I went to Vermont with my friends Conway and Hilly. We had a very fun, girly bonding weekend which consisted of lots of wine and late nights on the screened in porch. That coupled with tonight and that makes three of the last four nights that involved alcohol… and too many cigarettes for a gal that doesn’t really smoke. I feel yucky and unhealthy.

Rich, on the contrary, is training for a half marathon and has been running and/or biking every day. Instead of tennis tonight he went running. I am starting to feel like I need an intervention. It’s just that I tend to hibernate in the winter… I never see my friends from New York and with the cold and snow, never really want to do anything after work besides go home, watch TV, and snuggle with Rich and the pups. So I treasure girly time and reminiscing and connecting with good friends that I typically only see in the summer. Somehow during these times, I always tend to drink and drinking makes me crave smoke… not to mention lots of snacking.

On a positive note, I had a great weekend. I miss my friends from New York a lot. They know me well… better than my friends in Roch. Rochester people are very nice and I really like a lot of them, but they just aren’t my friends that I’ve known forever. On Sunday, when I dropped Conway and Hillary off at the Albany train station, I must have been sad without realizing it. At a rest area, I was walking out and I heard an old man say to another old man… “Let’s get together before something happens to one of us.” I totally started to cry.

Back to Vermont this weekend with Rob, Marian, and baby Cheeks. I’ll see my friend Jenn and her husband too, which will be nice…. I haven’t seen Jenn in over a year! Then no traveling for a few weekends. That will be a nice change!
More soon….

I'm Alive! I'm Alive!

I know, I know.. I’ve been leaving you all with no guidance, no stories of woe or excitement. No words of enlightenment. How did you all survive?

I have been a complete and utter stress case at work. I had three weeks to do this crazy consulting gig and I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I was a nutcase. I didn’t see Rich for weeks. I actually danced around at 4:30 in the morning with Peggy, my office manager in the back printing room at Kinkos while Wanda finished printing up our powerpoint presentations on glossy white paper with a frosty cover and navy blue backing and cord binding. These are things that got me excited in the past month. I ate nothing but disgusting fried food. I worked till 1AM day after day. I lived on coffee and Dunkin Donuts bagels.

But I have to say I feel very appreciated at work. I got a very nice bonus… a few days off and lots of compliments on a job well done. That makes it all worthwhile, though I certainly don’t need another job like that for awhile.

Sidebar: How hilarious is the movie Saved with Mandy Moore? It’s on TV right now and it’s distracting me from catching all of you up.

Okay, so what else? Memorial Day we went up to Vermont with the Piscataway Kapps and had a very nice relaxing weekend… The Piscataway Kapps love to nap, and there was napping-a-plenty. The weather was great… we fought all weekend to get Felicia to walk, though she chose to just. Well. Sit. But a great time was had and the cousins got to bond.. spending lots of time together on the floor.

Then I was stuck working seven days a week until two weekends ago when Rich and I went to Vermont and then he had a business conference at Foxwoods and I went with him for a few days and managed to lose lots o’ money but had a glorious time and had some nice dinners and spent some nice time with my sweet hubby who was very patient during my few weeks of work hell.

Then this past weekend, we met Jer and Pee wee at Margo’s commitment ceremony down in DC. Two short black haired women in taffeta dresses with fancy sashes later, and a bald woman rabbi and Margo and Merav were committed for life. Love it. It was nice to see family that we never ever see… Jer and I have a shortage of relatives and tend to feel it especially on rare family get togethers.

Today is July 4th and we were supposed to have a barbecue, but the weather did not want us to as it’s been rainy and yucky since I woke up. Rich got called into work… some power plant tragedy going on… not sure I understand the details. But I’ve been slothing and watching really bad Lifetime Television all day and loving every minute of it. Since when did Billy Baldwin become a bad TV movie actor?

Sorry to be a stranger. Promise to keep better in touch and will post pics of taffeta dresses and bald women Rabbis very soon.

Home Sweet Home - England Trip Report

We are home from our very quick trip to the UK. It was very fun.

We ended up enjoying our Maxjet flight very much. It really was all business class with all the amenities and comfort that you would find on any business class flight. And both flights ended up on time, thank goodness. The one annoying thing about flying Maxjet from Rochester is that we had to buy a separate flight from Rochester to NYC and back... which means collecting and rechecking our bags in New York. This became messy on our way to London when the Jet Blue flight was late and we were running through the airport to recheck in at the Maxjet counter. But all in all, I would definitely use Maxjet again.

We got to London after an overnight flight and rented a cute little Peugeot (pronounced Peu'jhitt in England, by the way) . Rich again mastered driving stick with his left hand on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road. Getting around the roundabouts is challenge enough for me (Look kids, Big Ben. Parliament.) I didn’t even have to navigate, thankfully for everyone involved, because we brought over Jill, our handydandy GPS system.

We drove to Bath, a very quaint little old town and stayed over there for a night at this beautiful hotel called the Royal Crescent, named suitably for the fact that it is located in a crescent shaped row of houses. It was impeccably decorated and had orchids and other pretty flowers everywhere. I loved it. Rich’s only comment was that the bed was very comfortable.

Like in good English fashion, it rained and rained. For the first day this was fine because the two of us passed out cold in the hotel, waking only to eat dinner at the restaurant downstairs. Rich tried foie gras, though it took him the entire night to pronounce the ‘fois’ correctly. The restaurant was yummy but no matter what they served, the bill was preposterous knowing that the dollar is as weak as the evidence that led us to the Iraq war (or insert some other political jab on the President.) If it’s any indication, Rich didn’t even buy a t-shirt and that’s saying a lot. The man lives for t-shirt buying.

The next day after walking the adorable town in the rain, we left to head to Cornwall for Jeremy and CJ’s wedding (the reason for our trip.) We got there at about 6:30, saw Jeremy and CJ for about two seconds and went up to our room to unpack. Then we went out to dinner with Chris and Ann, our other friends and went to a bar for a few drinks. By 11:30 we were back in the hotel.

The next day Rich, Chris, Ann, and I took a walk to an art gallery and down to the beach.. We were in a town called Rock, which is on the Atlantic. It felt like we were at the jersey shore… except the architecture of the little shore houses was much different than that of New Jersey. Still, it was sunny and it was nice to chat by the water despite the wind!
The wedding was lots of fun. Now that Rich and I have been to two weddings in the UK, I can wrongfully generalize how weddings there are different using characteristics of Ann and Chris and Jeremy and CJ’s wedding as a guide…

1. O’ Jerusalem. Sung with lots of enthusiasm in a scene much like the one in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Despite being Jewish, you cant help but want to sing at the top of your lungs to this hymn.
2. Lots of hats. Seriously. I look like a moron in hats, but I was sad that I was not wearing a big colorful thing on my head.
3. Loooooong. Jeremy’s wedding started at 3 and ended at 1. Long day.
4. Disco. All about the after dinner disco. Cheezy dancy 80s music. Jeremy’s personal favorite song is ‘Kids in America’ and don’t you know we were all cuttin’ a rug to that one.
5. Speeches. Loooooong with lots of ‘here, here!’s added for good measure. Typically a wager as to the time from start to finish. This one lasted a bit more than 35 minutes. I was off by about 56 seconds and won the table.

The rest is similar to weddings over here complete with lots of fun and frolic. We had a fun table and enjoyed the night, though somewhere during the night, I had massive intestinal disfortitude and ended up upstairs in the room for awhile, changed, lied down for awhile, took the self portraits above (no, I wasn’t drunk), and then went back downstairs to start again! I am about a foot shorter than every single person at this wedding and never could get a good shot of the bride and groom together, but the pictures here are the best I have! The next day we returned the car and went to London, where we met up with Hazeywoo and went to dinner at a Thai restaurant nearby our hotel which landed Rich in bed for a good 24 hours with his own episode of intestinal disfortitude.

Hazel and I then ended up having a day to ourselves while Rich enjoyed the city from the inside of a hotel room (the bathroom to be exact.) Despite rain and wind, we braved the city from the top of one of those Hop On, Hop Off sightseeing buses that I love. We did a full loop with a funny guide and then hopped off in Chinatown to go grab some lunch. After lunch, we walked a bit and landed on a little riverboat that did a loop around (and was included in our bus tour.) That was fun, if not more rainy… and we ended up a bit loopy by the end.

Here are the pictures to prove it. After the boat, we went to Covant Gardens, where we walked until we found a pub. Had some drinks, went to dinner at a yummy Italian restaurant, and said our goodbyes. Rich missed a very fun day! The next morning Rich and I departed for the tube to the train to the plane to the plane to the car ride home.

Hollywood Pisses Me Off

Today was 'Sloth and Watch TV' day. I realized that I was premenstrual as I snacked on lite french onion dip (I swear there IS such thing) and sobbed uncontrollably during the Intervention marathon. Inbetween the E True Hollywood Story of Michael J Fox and Sell This House, I managed to turn on E News Weekend and listened to the news that Paris Hilton would be sentenced to 45 days in prison.


I couldn't help but be happy that she was actually sentenced to prison. Especially when I heard that she was 15 minutes late to her sentencing and that she said that she never knew that her license was suspended because, and I quote, "she's a really busy person." Is she kidding? Why is she frickin busy? What the hell is she spending her time doing that is actually positively impacting the world?


Then, I turned on that show about Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott. Dean was going on an interview for a dinky little nothing job and stressing about their finances and Tori was shopping and spending oodles of money. Then Tori and Dean bought a bed and breakfast and had no clue that owning a bed and breakfast requires an enormous amount of work. Tori kept complaining about everything. She was enormously torturous.


It's honestly like these people are totally oblivious to how the real world works. It's really pathetic and annoying. And apparently, Lindsay Lohan drinks and parties because 'being famous is very lonely.' I hate all these people. They need a life. (We won't mention the fact that I need a better life than spending my Sunday catching up on their lives.)


Rich opened the house this weekend (hence my day of TV sloth) and I cant wait to get back up there after our trip to England. Friday I was in NYC for a conference for work. Then all of us went out to dinner, got suitably tipsy, and tortured some poor innocent girl who sat among us on the 9:30 plane ride back to the 'Cha. (PS I got her number to set her up with one of our coworkers.) Saturday I had a girls night out, but I was exhausted from being up at 3:15 the prior day to make my 6AM flight and didnt last that long.


Next is England on Wednesday. We fly Maxjet, a new all business class flight that has a few transatlantic flights. The planes probably look similar to this.



But Rich was willing to take the chance for the extra legroom. The prices are comparable to other coach seats. So hopefully we get there in one piece.

That's all for now.


Gotta go watch Flip This House.

Ahhh... spring has sprung

I nurtured my rose garden this weekend. I see growth on all of the rose plants and am very excited to see how they fared over the harsh Rochester winter. I know this is a boring topic for most of you, but having a rose garden was on my life list and I am very proud of this accomplishment. I had lots of blooms last year and expect all but the plant that Rich ran over with the snowblower to do very well.

Rich opens the Vermont house - FINALLY this weekend. He will go up with his dad and I will stay in the Cha. I am actually in NYC for a conference all day Friday and have a girls night out on Saturday. The rest of the weekend I will sloth and watch TV. I've had a rough stressful bunch of weeks at work and I need to do NOTHING.

On the 9th we go to the UK for a wedding. I'm looking forward to it. Then Hazeywoo will fly into London to meet us for two nights. I cant wait to see her... woohoooooo! The wedding is down in Cornwall. Should be a hectic bunch of days, but will be fun I am sure. I look very forward to many fun relaxing weekends in Vermont. I hope to do lots of planting and lots of relaxing. Come visit!

More to come when I am not working till all hours of the night and have a brain with which to process thoughts. :-)

Can you recount your last 13 New Year's Eves?

I have pretty much blocked out most of my adulthood... but I think I am probably about 70% correct. If anyone can fill in the blanks, that would be grand. (Please dont feel insulted if I was actually with you and don't remember. If Rich got insulted every time that occurred, I'd be divorced by now.) I should really keep a journal. And I miss being an alcoholic.


1994-1995 I believe… with Dicky and his friends at a party at some bar. Started and ended up sleeping at his friend Joe’s apartment downtown. Don't remember much of the evening.

1995-1996 - NO CLUE. I might be mixing up the previous year with this one.

1996-1997 I think it was this year that I went to a party… a friend of my friend Jacqui’s… I brought my psycho roommate Eliza.. who ended up hitting on one of Jacqui’s friend’s boyfriends all night. I got so drunk I threw up out a cab window on the way back to the apartment. Eliza locked me out by mistake and I had to sleep at first, in the hall, and then at my neighbor’s.

1997-1998 At my friend Jenn’s apartment for a house party… (I think this was New Year's Eve..) with Jacqui, her sister, my oddball friend Sean, and an odd red streak in my hair that I decided looked festive until I looked back at the pictures…

1998-1999 Having just had reconstructive ankle surgery, I believe I was couped up in a cast on some very strong meds… My mom was taking care of me and she left to go party it up with my dad and I was alone until some friends came to visit before heading out to their own celebrations. I remember Dana had a party and she called me quite drunk at midnight. I passed out very early.

1999-2000 On a chartered boat on the waters of the Caribbean in St. John… sick as can be but feeling good from some special brownies with a little too much, um.. spice… with Jen Dryer and about 8 to ten other people. At midnight, many of them stripped (including someone who was nine months pregnant) and jumped into the waters. Very cool millenium New Years, from what I remember.

2000-2001 London, two weeks after my father died, drinking my sorrows away to the point of massive regurgitating into a box and getting thrown out of a London club with Jeremy W and his friends, as well as Hazeywoo, Meghan, Ross and Dave, Chris and Ann, etc.. (Well, I was the only one thrown out, but they were there with me.)

2001-2002 Mom very sick and in the hospital, Rich working up in Rochester, and me sitting home in NJ feeling very very sad…

2002-2003 – Rich and I having a sweet New Years for two… we cooked a nice dinner (some seafood pasta dish with scallops, shrimp, etc), drank some wine, and snuggled on the couch

2003-2004 – At my friend Eileen’s house… after bowling. Lots of kids running around, with Marga and Jason, a couple we met in a dive shop here… Jason got sick and I spent a good portion of the night driving him home – 20 minutes away

2004-2005 – WHY THE HECK CAN I NOT REMEMBER WHAT I DID???

2005-2006 – Rich was working. Lord knows what I did. Not sure I left the house.

2006-2007 – At our neighbor’s house with our other neighbors… the six of us ate some appetizers and hung out and drank wine. We were home by 12:30. I felt very adult.

What's the Beef?

Rich and I were watching TV the other night, when we saw a Wendy's commercial... the oddity of which was the fact that in the background was the song Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes. Not even the words... just the music playing in the background. Rich and I just looked at eachother and scratched our heads simultaneously (and then wondered if we perhaps might have lice. Just kidding).

What, praytell, is the connection? Now I am calling all of you folk with marketing prowess. Who decided that it was a good idea to put a non-lyrical part of Blister in the Sun on a Wendy's commercial and make no reference to it? I've seen that commercial so many times since, and it is starting to bug me more and more. All responses considered.

I always thought that song was about masterbation. Does anyone else think that they are subconsciously making a reference back to the 'Where's the Beef' campaign or am I overthinking here?

A New Beginning for the Kapps

Very exciting news... but let me give you some background first.

When Rich and I met, I was working and in school part time, HE was working and in school part time, and we were separated by a six hour drive. Fast forward a bit, and my mom got sick. I took a semester off of school and in time, left my job and moved back to NJ to be with her. Rich spent all his off time coming down to NJ and sitting with me in the hospital. Then, my mom died and I stayed in NJ and finished grad school schlepping back and forth to NYU. Rich and I still continued the long distance thing and saw eachother on my off school time and his off work AND school time. It was a lot of scheduling.

Things improved when I gave in and moved upstate. For awhile, I was grieving and he was working and going to school on his off time. I was depressed and knew no one up here, which meant I pretty much attacked him like a needy dog whenever he walked in the door.

Time went on. We got married. I got a job. His shift schedule changed to a twelve hour shift which meant he was either working 6AM to 6PM, or 6PM to 6AM. It was not pretty. Rich finally finished school about a year and a half ago and finally got his diploma in the mail a few months back due to many an administrative hassle.

Well, I am thrilled to announce that Rich got a promotion at his company. It became official yesterday. He'll be an engineer.. but who cares about all that. HE'LL BE WORKING DAY HOURS. (Were you expecting another type of announcement?) ;-)

I am sure that none of you have any idea how big a deal this is. No more will I have to open my desk drawer, take out his shift calendar grid, and think about whether an "N" on a day means that he starts midnights THAT night or the night before (typically it means the night before because the second half of the shift is on that day) before I make any plan. No more will I have to try and memorize a six week rotation (much to Rich's dismay, I NEVER memorized his schedule).

Can we make plans on Memorial Day? Hell yeah. July 4th? You betcha. Never again will I be sitting alone on Christmas with nothing to do because he's working. We will never have to do a special early Christmas again because Rich has to work on Christmas Eve.

I am so proud of him for finishing school and getting this job. And I am so happy for us that he is getting this job. I cant wait to actually have a normal daily routine.. I cant wait to actually get to sleep in the same bed as him for four weeks in a row.

After six years, The Kapps are becoming a normal couple.

Myspace Take 2

The irony is O squared C (out of control) as my friend Jenn and I used to say. Just days after I documented my myspace woes, someone got into my account and posted a bulletin (please note that I have no clue HOW to post a bulletin) touting Jesus and other non-Michellisms... and sent it to all 10 whopping people on my friend list. Rich thought it was funny that out of the millions on myspace, this person picked a person in, probably, the 1-5% in terms of friend lists.

Idiots.

Myspace Horror, Fat Jeans, and Other Nightmares

Nothing much to tell since returning from NYC. Before I left, I had a nightmare of a project due at work and it did not get done and so, I've been working terribly long hours for the past week+ and it shows all over. I am cranky and eating like shit. My fat pants are tight.

And I seem to have lost my mind. As of last night, I have reached a new pathetic level that I vowed never to achieve. When Marian, my sis in law, showed me myspace, I vowed never to join, only to find I had a half-assed very limited myspace page a few weeks later just so I could snoop onto other people's spaces and make fun of them. Fast forward a few weeks later and I even had a few friends.. Then, after mocking people who made new friends through posting ridiculous flashing pictures of some stupid comment or picture (*cough - another sister in law- cough*), I was asked to be some girl who lived in the same town as me's friend and I obliged and started to chat upstate New York with her... something I never thought I would type aloud.

Then, last night I did it. I blame daylight savings, work stress, the close proximity to a nuclear power plant... and anything else that I can think of.

I was surfing Hazeywoo's myspace page (Hi Hazey... miss you) Now let me enthusiastically state that Hazey is one of my favorite friends EVER. She is adorable, VERY smart, fun, sweet as can be, cool as hell, very athletic, and all sorts of other wonderful things (this is not at all biased by the fact that she is one of the only ones to read this blog.) But if we lived on the same side of the ocean, I would mock her wholeheartedly for adding bands and other anonymous famous people and things to her myspace friend list. My feeling on this is that these famous people are not your friends. Why can't you just visit their pages? Why pretend that they are your friends?

Anyway, then I saw that new on her friend list was Ellen DeGeneres. I worship Ellen and immediately clicked on the Ellen friend link, but Ellen was listed as private, which means that you cant see her site unless you add her as a friend. So in a weak moment, I did it. I asked to be Ellen DeGeneres's friend. I am not proud. However, one day later and I am thrilled that I can look at all her pictures and read all about her show!! Sadly, we can probably look to a future Michelle posting flashing pictures that say things like "TGIF" in flourescent pink block letter. Oy vey.

In other news, the Kapps had a fun poker tournament this weekend. There were 21 people playing and others hanging out. There was lots of shouting and drinking and eating and card playing anarchy. I cant wait to have another one.

More news to come.

NYC Trip Report

Hi all,


I have been a total blog-slacker since before Rich and I went to the spa a few weeks back. It's just that I am still honestly not caught up with work and I just have not had time to do vacation pictures etc. However, so that I don't get even more behind, I will fill you in on my weekend in NYC and then get back to my spa trip at a later date.


This weekend was my friend Kristy's baby shower and since it's winter and the VT house is closed, it was a good excuse to have a girly weekend and see friends that I only typically get to see during Vermont season... or rarely at all. I told my friend Stacy I'd stay with her since she lives in Greenwich CT and I have never met her youngest son and have only met her oldest once and it was an excuse to spend QT with Stacy T and also see my friend Nancy who lives a town or so away in Darien.

It always takes one of these weekends to remind me how much I loved my college years and how much I miss all my friends that I never get to see in New York. Moving up to Rochester shortly after my mom died caused me to get careless about keeping in touch, as I spent my first year here depressed and in transition and put all my effort into my new living arrangement and going through the grieving process. In the four years here, I have managed to disconnect much more than I would have liked. I rarely chat on the phone these days, and when work is crazy, my emails get fewer and farther between. Weekends like these make me reminiscint of how damn funny my friends are and how much I treasure that really deep hearty belly laugh. I had the hearty belly giggles a lot this weekend and the rest of the time was good quality time with old friends.

Friday I got in to Stacy's and we had a chit chat catch up session for a few hours before I was reminded that she lives in a ranch and I was guaranteed to be woken up by loud children in the wee hours of the morning. Um. She kept that promise. 5:50AM and incorporated into my dream was a loud piercing broken record of "momma momma momma momma momma" which resonated throughout the house and did not rest until Stacy was up and full force into mommy-dom. I spent Saturday morning taking in the sights of delightful and loving Norton family anarchy: Waffle maker oozing with bisquick en route to becoming waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, Emma and Justin running around the house in circles chasing eachother, diapers being changed, sippy cups being filled, mom being climbed onto, toys being dumped onto the rug, and my favorite (only cause he was okay) event of the morning when Justin went to chase and jump onto Stacy where upon she ducked and moved out of the way to be funny, sending him flying through the air into the little rocking chair which flipped forward and knocked him to the ground. That's my girl making the baby cry for a good ten minutes. The Norton kids have fire engine red hair and these little mini-Stacy faces.. enough to make you wanna mush their cheeks. I had to stop myself. So far, Justin's just a baby and Emma's too timid to be a real Thornley. I cant wait to see her grow up to be like her mom. Here are the two kiddies.


After breakfast Stacy drove me to see Nancy... who has a 2 and a half year old and 8 month old twins. I spent four hours in the throws of more adorable baby-filled chaos... this time the Fernandez family which consists of Cesar, Nancy, and three non-potty trained kiddies.. one with bluer eyes than the next (and might I add that little Georgia was "made" during Rich and my wedding weekend. I stand proud.)


Sadly, after spending time with Nancy, I was again regretful at how little we speak and how much I adore her. We vowed to put in more phone time going forward. Phone time will have to do because the Fernandez fam is moving down to Atlanta, where Nancy grew up. My little debutante friend is going back to her hometown... but not without a promise to visit Vermont this summer. We had a great visit... and it was great to see Nancy in mommy-mode as well, which required me to literally follow her around the house as she fed and changed diapers and cleaned and chased Georgia, etc. Here is the Fernandez fam minus two cute twins that were sleeping during picture time.


The week before I left, I sent out a random email to those of my friends that still live in the city and a few in NJ and Connecticut to see if anyone was around to have dinner on Saturday and we ended up with a reservation for 14 (thanks to Conway who spent much of Friday afternoon trying to find a restaurant that would take a reservation for 14 on a Saturday night). Stacy and I drove in from CT and met everyone for drinks at a bit after 8 and then dinner at 9. It was really fun. There were friends from college, friends from old jobs, friends from camp twenty years ago, friends from the Cha that moved down to the city, friends that I met through other friends, and my bro and sis in law, Jeremy and Pee Wee. Kudos to Kristy for schlepping into the city with Tash with a very pregnant belly.. she's a trooper. She endured a late night and an uncomfortable chair. Yummy food, lots of laughs, and an all around good time was had by all, and Stacy snapped her fingers and like the schedule-Nazi that she is, had me in the car and en route back to Connecticut so we could get to sleep and start "momma momma momma" all over again Sunday morning. Here are some pics:


Sunday morning came early and we departed after breakfast for Kristy's baby shower, during which we reminisced about fun Lehigh moments and experienced more belly laughs. After a marathon of gift-opening by the cute little pregger gal, Conway chauffered me to the airport where I waited two hours for my plane ride home. Here are two pics from Kristy's shower. The rest are in Kristy's camera as I was nominated official picture taker for the event.

All in all, it was a great weekend complete with reminiscing, giggles, catch up, hugs, fun, questions about why I havent been knocked up yet, etc... Stacy, you rock for driving me around and taking care of me. Hope I see everyone again soon.