Data Dump

Data dump.

It's one of those phrases that's in vogue at work.

Similar to other phrases in vogue at work, I really am not a fan of it.

To me, this is what I see when I hear "data dump:"

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A bunch of crap all thrown together.

No uniformity.

The papers in this picture are different colors, sizes, contain text/don't contain text, etc...

However, at work, it's meant to be a distinct set of data from a distinct set of fields...not just the kitchen sink. So, is "data dump" really the right terminology?

This is what I think about on my drive home (when trying to think of a blog post title.)

So, this is my data dump for today (everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink):

• Let's start on a positive note, shall we? Today is National Drink Wine Day. Bottoms up! (Another weird phrase).

(Plug: this wine is from the Traveling Vineyard. My friend Dana is a rep and you can visit her site here and order some vino.)

• Here's an up-to-the-minute weather report (completely neutral, of course):

Yes, snow. Again.

• I came home to only one window leaking due to ice dams on the roof, but newly plastered wall in basement is soaked. [insert sad face]. Here's what was happening last week at our front picture window:

• I kind of am in love with my 2015 Agenda. It's sunshine on a cloudy day:

• I'm completely underwhelmed with this season of Downton Abbey. The Dowager Countess makes me smile with her dry wit, but that's about it. I don't know if it's charm has just worn off for me...or what. 

SPOILER (turn back now if you're not caught up on Downton): 

I'm sad that Isis (the Crawley's dog) passed away. I loved that Cora & Robert wanted to sleep with Isis on his last night of life, but....would that really have happened in 1924? In England? Aristocratic England? Yeah..I didn't think so.

• On the other hand, the TV show, "Donnie Loves Jenny" is wacko. Completely wacko. I kind of liked Donnie Wahlberg better when I viewed him as a Boston guy that became famous by being in New Kids on the Block. I really don't like hearing about his bodily functions. Kind of ruins the picture.

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There's your dump. Data dump, that is.

The Writing's In the Snow

After this:

and this:

and forgetting my work laptop tonight (I had planned to do work at home),

I was led to feel like this:

(Of course, I would edit it to say, "...where I don't have to deal with any stupid people or mountains of snow.)

So, as they say, I saw the light.

Dawn broke over Marblehead (for you local yocals).

I woke up and smelled the coffee.

The PERFECT job/living situation has been right under my nose the whole time!!!

When John and I were in Aruba, as we walked up and down the beach, we noticed a man in the water cleaning the markers/buoys.

This is IT! It's got everything:

a) a warm climate

b) solitude (I can wear waterproof headphones and just nod at tourists [& sharks] as they pass by)

c) casual dress code

d) no shortage of work (unless barnacles become extinct)

e) variety (moving up and down the beach)

and who cares about the pay when you're in paradise!?!?!

If you're having a hard time visualizing it, imagine me being one of these people. (NOTE: I'd stipulate that I'm a one-woman show.)

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So, as they say in Papiamento (local language spoken in Aruba): AYO! (Goodbye!)

Disclaimer: This is all a pipe dream until we hit Powerball...or a generous donor steps forward.

Write On!

photo credit: Real Simple, December 2014, page 80. 

(And yes, I'm a librarian, but no, I don't feel like citing using MLA or APA. This is the KT quick cite method.)

As mentioned in my last post, I've been super busy of late. After Christmas, I decided to take the time to catch up on the ever growing pile of magazines on my nightstand.

I came across the above snippet in the December issue of Real Simple in the article named, "5 Old-Timey Rituals That Should Make a Comeback."

It really struck a chord with me. 

Back in the day I used to LOVE to write letters. In junior high, I had penpals in Canada, Sweden, and France. In high school, I began corresponding with penpals in Ohio and Pennsylvania. (FYI: I still keep up with most of them via Facebook now.)

As long distance calls were expensive for a college student, I'd often write letters to my friends back home. When I left my first college, I kept in touch with the friends I'd made via, you guessed it, letters.

Judith Martin (aka Miss Manners) is right on the money. While phone calls, texting, and social media have their place in today's society (I certainly don't disagree with that), there is still a place for the handwritten note.

I haven't sent Christmas cards for the past two years due to being so busy and I've mourned the loss of writing notes in the cards to those that I don't see or talk to very often. 

Well Miss Manners, mission accomplished. 

I've decided that I will write a handwritten/personal note in each birthday card I send this year (and yes, I still send those.) It may make me late in sending them, but so be it.

Do you still write letters? Notes in cards? Actually send cards?

This Is How Busy I've Been

(Note: It's typically against my better judgment to share a photo of my toes with the world, but in this case, I'm making an exception.)

I got a pedicure with my Mom in Florida while visiting them in November.

As most women know, pedicures do last a good long while.

At some point in late December, I decided that the pedicure had seen better days and started to take the polish off.

"Started to" being the key phrase here.

I got distracted -- something happened -- the phone rang, someone texted me, or someone needed me for something.

So, yeah, I'm walking around with these toes.

John said to me last night (having just noticed), "You're not going to bed like that, are you?" He's a funny man.

New Year's Resolution: Remove polish from toes on right foot!

Late to the [Proverbial] Party

For the record, I'm usually early or on time for parties, which some might say is much worse than being late.

This post is about the proverbial party...the blog lover's party.

I love reading blogs of all kinds -- cooking, family, pet, exercise.

Up until recently, I simply had them bookmarked and would check each one every so often. This got to be quite time consuming, as I amassed quite a few (thanks Pinterest!)

I would be wasting time going to each blog when only some of them had new posts.

Enter my friend Crystal from My Ramblings. (Speaking of which, CRYSTAL: you need to get back to blogging regularly! :)

She mentioned that she uses Bloglovin to keep track of the blogs she reads.

I decided to check it out.

It's awesome and SUPER simple to use!

Go to bloglovin.com and set up an account (if I recall, this only involves giving an email address and thinking up a password.)

Then, start finding the blogs you read.

You can type a blog's URL into the search box and it will bring back (more than likely) a bunch of results, but usually for the same blog. I'm unsure of why this is (naming differences?), but I went ahead and picked the result that had the largest amount of followers (there's strength in numbers!).

It then adds it to your feed. You can add as many or as few as you like.

Then, sign in when you feel like it and you'll see new posts from those blogs on your feed.

I find the last post that I remember seeing and work my way up through the newer posts.  It's cool because I get the blog post title, the first few sentences, and generally a photo from the post.

If I'm not interested, I move on and I don't have to waste time visiting the blog.

If I want to read a post, I simply click on it and it opens it up in a Bloglovin frame.

So, as the title of this post indicates, I'm probably the last person on Earth to discover Bloglovin. However, if any of my few readers haven't checked it out -- you should!

50 States? 50 Blogs!: Georgia

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A Boomer Girl's Guide

Georgia...on my mind.

I'm on a midnight train to Georgia.

It's a rule...you HAVE to say those two lines when talking about the state of Georgia.

This post has been in draft form for...well, let's not say how long, shall we? And because it's been so long, I honestly have no recollection how I stumbled across this blog. Now that we've established that I'm slow in writing/posting and have a bad memory, let's move along, shall we?

As the name of the blog indicates, Juhli (the blogger) is a baby boomer. (And yes, I had to go to Wikipedia to make sure I was clear on what ages that specifically covered.) Those born between 1946 & 1964 are considered to be baby boomers. While I'm not considered part of this generation, my parents are and I've recently begun thinking about the next phase of John's and my life -- retirement. (We haven't hit Powerball yet, so I don't think we'll be quitting our jobs tomorrow, but it's always good to think ahead.)

Speaking of thinking ahead, Juhli has written some posts that have helped me in this regard and gotten me thinking about and interested in planning for the retirement phase. (I've even added some retirement-like books to my "to read" list.) Eek.

Another interesting subject/subjects that Juhli writes about are decluttering and only buying things needed. She keeps detailed records about what she's shed from her house and in turn, what she's allowed to come into her house. Bless her heart, she's even done a no spend challenge. (I'm not from the South, but since this post is about a southern blog, I felt it necessary to throw out that a "bless her heart."

Even though we may not be in the same generation, Juhli and I have something in common -- volunteering! (Which I will eventually blog about.) We both are involved in the Friends' group for our local public library. As we're just getting underway at our library, I find Juhli's volunteer posts interesting, specifically ones about book sales.


Things that caught my eye about this blog:

• Tabs at the top of the blog. I especially like the Helpful Reading tab, which gives recommended reading on a variety of subjects germane to retirement -- decluttering, aging, happiness, money, etc...
• Aesthetically pleasing background. The coral color with bird silhouettes is simple, yet beautiful.

Things on this blog that I'd like for my blog:

• The tabs at the top of the blog that I mention above.
• A "theme" for each year. Juhli's theme for her 65th year is PUSH. I think it's great to have a theme/goals in writing as a constant reminder.

While the subjects of retirement and aging aren't my usual blog fare, I enjoy being exposed to these topics and in some small way starting to prepare myself for these things. 

Oh, and did I mention she's a thrift store shopper? I think we'd get along famously "in real life." (Until I wanted to buy something and she'd kindly remind me to only buy what I need...lol.)

The 411 Around Here

Life's been busy. Really busy.

I won't bore you with the details.

OK, I will (that's the point of this blog, right?)



Food, Food, Food!

I've been doing a lot of cooking (a lot for ME) lately.

I made a REALLY good (REALLY rich) dessert -- Butter Brickle Frozen Dessert. (If you haven't tried any recipes from the blog From Valerie's Kitchen, you REALLY should!

For this recipe, I even purchased a new pan to add to my repertoire.

Behold the springform pan!

Behold the springform pan that's from T.J. Maxx for $9.99 AND it's a Calphalon. Woo hoo!

And as crazy as this is, it NEVER occurred to me that you can make a rolling pin out of anything -- even a can of broth! (Thanks to Valerie for that little tip!)

Here's the bottom layer/crust ready to be baked.

Here's the brickle portion of our lovely dessert ready to be baked:

And in my humble opinion, here's the best part (anything that involved Cool Whip is the best part, right?)

Here are some pics of the finished product!

(And it even came out of the springform pan relatively easily!)

I know I didn't really describe what the dessert is made of, but it's just a whole lot of yum. Graham crackers. Nuts. Cool Whip. Butterscotch caramel topping. Wipe the drool off the screen and check out the link to the recipe above!

I don't have any photos, but I tried out a new pork chop recipe -- Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops from the Contented Wife blog. They were really good - a nice departure from plain old pan fried pork chops. (Here's a picture from her blog):

I tried out meal planning. I've seen posts about it before on various blogs and on Pinterest, but after reading a post from one of my fave bloggers, Kristan, at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, I decided to take the plunge. She had a handy dandy meal planner/grocery list printout, which I found helpful.

Here was the first attempt:

For just a little extra work on a Sunday (when we do grocery shopping), it saved a lot of headaches/running around during the week. Regrettably, I haven't done it since (yesterday was nuts), but I will definitely do again the following week.

I've also created an old fashioned recipe binder. While it's good to pin recipes on Pinterest and good to snap a pic of one from a magazine with your phone, I need to have one that I can read without having to reload/take the phone out of sleep mode, etc... So, I took myself to Walmart, got a pretty binder and voila.

Speaking of food, let's talk about Weight Watchers and my status. I personally think this picture sums it up:

Moving right along...


Crafty McCrafterson

I wanted to put something above John's & my bed since we moved in (which was seven-ish years ago? My memory stinks.)

I've bought several things and had several Pinterest/non-Pinterest inspired ideas and they've all gone by the wayside. After reading The Nesting Place (whose subtitle is more important than the main title, in my opinion -- "It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful), I decided to get off my butt and just go with the latest idea that I found and loved. It's in the works, but here are some clues:

New Glasses

I got new glasses a few weeks ago and I LOVE them. (Probably because I hated my previous pair so.much.) I find picking out glasses akin to buying a new car...sort of. First, glasses are ridiculously expensive (not as expensive as a car, but not far behind....) Second, I feel like the optician/car salesperson is waiting with baited breath to see how much I'll spend. When I was at my appointment a few weeks ago and I told the optician I would be buying my contacts online, her lack of interest in my choosing glasses greatly diminished.

In the end, I choose the pair of frames that I liked (not the ones that were necessarily at the height of current optical fashion) and I'm happy with them. (They're purple. Again. Of course.)

Anniversary

John and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on September 13th. Eleven years of wedded bliss! (I am one lucky lady. :) We went to a new/local Mexican restaurant, En Fuego, in Ipswich, MA. It was good (not great, but good.)

We had some lovely cocktails:

John presented me with these beautiful stacking rings:

(Please no criticism of my cuticles...lol.) They're a bit too small and that's why they're not all the way on my finger, so we're exchanging them for a larger size. I love them! He definitely had me beat with the gifts. His words: "Just admit defeat." (He's a much better gift giver than I am!)

As it was our 11th anniversary and steel is the gift for 11 years (as in, "you need nerves of steel to be married to me for 11 years :), I gave him an ice bucket (we don't have one -- imagine that!) with a bottle of sangria and a bottle of rose.

This past Saturday we went out for our "real" anniversary dinner to another local restaurant (one that's been around a lot longer), The Beverly Depot. It's pretty cool as it's actually the old depot/train station and the commuter rail goes by. I had ginger scallion swordfish (which was awesome) and John had prime rib.

We took this selfie before we left:

TV

I've been watching a few shows feverishly (or as feverishly as I can with the busy schedule):

The Great Food Truck Race

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I binge watched the first four episodes of this season On Demand (which I missed live) and have been watching on Sunday nights live. Eh. I'm not that wedded to any of the teams this go around, but I still think it's fun to see what locations they go to and what the local food specialties are.

Call the Midwife

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I'm currently watching Season 3 (the newest season) and will be sad when I'm done because I'll have to wait until next year for Season 4!

The Paradise

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This is the latest addition to my TV watching repertoire. I needed something I could watch on my Kindle via Netflix and I found this BBC series. I'm only a few episodes in and it's only two seasons, so this should be a quick one. It's about the rise of the department store in the late 1800's in London. It's not nearly as good as Call the Midwife, but it makes 30 minutes go by on the treadmill!


Eagles Concert

I bought John tickets to the Eagles concert for Father's Day and we went last Monday night. It was GREAT! It was the "History of the Eagles," so they actually played songs that I knew (vs. a band going on tour to play songs from their new album that no one's ever heard.)

I took the commuter rail from work to Boston.

The concert was at the TD Garden, where the Celtics and Bruins play, so it was cool to see the banners.

Here's a pre-concert selfie. Great of John, fakey smile/double chin on me.

Aloha!

I took this little gem out of the library a few weeks ago:

I've been doing a lot of vacation daydreaming lately and John and I had mentioned that we wanted Hawaii to be one of our next vacations, so I consulted the ever-reliable Fodor. (In case you're not aware, I'm somewhat of a travel guide geek. I LOVE to soak in as much information as I can ahead of time prior to arriving at the destination.)

A few people I'd asked about Hawaii had said we would definitely not want to go to Oahu (too crowded, too much traffic, commercialized, etc...), however, we both want to see Pearl Harbor and Waikiki. So, in a perfect world, we'd go to Oahu first and do these things and then based on my reading, we'd be best suited to the Big Island, Maui, or Kauai. (This will be a LONG vacation!). I just happened to glance at the index and noticed an entry for "bodysurfing!" John LOVES to bodysurf. These three islands have great bodysurfing. Kauai, of the three, seems to be the most unspoiled and I think the one I'd enjoy the most. But...Maui sounds great, too. Decisions, decisions! Any readers have any opinions to share?


That'll do it for now. Thanks for reading (if you lasted this long!)