So dad and I spent the day yesterday exploring the 2 little towns where he and my mother grew up, along with my grandparents and my great aunts and their families.

These are 2 kind of dumpy, gritty towns and very small in terms of square miles but very densely developed. Garfield, for instance, is just two square miles in size but has a population of about 30,000. Adjacent to Garfield is Saddle Brook, which is a little bigger, at 2.7 square miles, but with half the population. The real estate values there are pretty high, though, becus of the area's proximity to the city, which is right across the river. There are a lot of jobs on both sides of the river, now and at the time the families first settled here.

There were thousands of immigrants getting off the boats across the Hudson: German, Italian, Slavic, Russian, Hungarian, Polish. They landed at Ellis Island, looked across the river toward Jersey and decided the other side was as good a place as any to put down roots.

So we looked up a bunch of addresses where various family members lived. Dad's memory and directions were flawless. We were looking at places where family members lived from about 1929, when my grandfather first stepped off the passenger ship "Dresden" at Ellis Island, into the 1940s.

If we hadn't gone on this trip, dad probably wouldn't have remembered a lot of details, and he was telling me so much I couldn't keep up and I was driving so I couldn't take notes.

One of my favorite of his recollections was when he showed me the old brick apartment house where he lived from about pre-school age to 4 years old.


They lived on the 2nd floor of this building, facing the street. They didn't have a refrigerator but they had an ice box that was made to fit in the window and face out, like an air conditioner. If you wanted ice, you put a little sign out on the box so the ice man would know. He would then carry up a big block of ice for you.

Dad asked me to walk into the lobby and see if the original white marble steps and walls were still there. They are.




So strange to imagine my grandparents collecting their mail here, years before I was born.

Across the street is another brick building where they sold live chickens to the housewives. That's all they sold, live chickens. They were kept in cages stacked from floor to ceiling and you'd go in and pick the one you wanted; they they'd go out back and kill it for you.


Here's the chicken store now. It looks like it's being used as an apartment building. This is also the spot where a really cute photo of my dad was taken when he was a little boy and he was sitting with a neighbor's girl who was playing with a litter of kittens inside a giant truck tire.



We had lunch at a diner on Rt. 46 that dad said existed back then, though it looked a little different. Just think that my grandparents could have sat and eaten there 20 years before I was born, and now I was eating there 39 years after my grandfather died. It's almost like the Twilight Zone or something.

Here's where one of my great aunts lived with her husband.



I don't know why, but I never met my 2 great aunts, grandpa's sisters, although they were still living in the area. Both came from Germany, after my grandfather did in 1923. Dad said the one sister married a Nazi and that when she got pregnant, they made a point to return to Germany to give birth so the child could have dual citizenship. However, the year she gave birth to her son was 1934, at a time when the Nazi party was just gaining political power; I don't think anyone then could have foreseen what would unfold.

This was the aunt who brought my dad to a German-American Bund camp.

We met a friendly neighbor who talked to us at length.

The other sister of my grandfather's lived with her husband here:


They didn't have any children. He was a foreman at Forsman's Woolen Mill.

Switching to my mother's side of the family, here's where my maternal grandmother's family home was when she grew up.



I had never seen any of these addresses, nor did I realize during all those years of visiting my mother's parents home that everyone else lived so close!

I got quite a shock to see my maternal grandparents' home, where so many happy memories were made, no longer exists. They built a new house there.



There was a little walkway to a small park in the back and you can see it here to the right of their house. Behind the house is a big ugly old factory building which is still there.


This is the view after having walked back into the little park. The spot where my grandparents' house stood is now occupied by a new house at left, and you can see the factory building at right. Grandpa used to grow veggies in his backyard but the new house takes up much more space.

My grandfather built that house himself. It was a one bedroom, one bath brick ranch with a spare room (no closet) and a super large Florida room where they practically lived in the summer.

I spoke to a friendly next door neighbor, a Pole, who said they knocked down my grandparents' brick ranch house a few years after he bought his house in 1995.

I hadn't known that my dad grew up for his teen years on 4th Street while my mother lived literally around the block on 5th Street. In a 2.7 square mile town, is it any wonder they met and married??

Also no longer in existence is an earlier address where dad lived in Garfield. There's a brand new duplex condo there completed in 2015.



The unit on the right is for sale right now for a little over $500,000.

We looked for the big maple tree in the backyard, but it's not there anymore either.

It was a great trip. I enjoyed my dad's company. I'm not sure I ever took such a long trip with him, just the two of us. He still knew his way around so well, there was no need for the typed directions I had painstakingly prepared to get us from one address to the next. I knew the area was densely populated and I thought there might be a lot of missteps getting around, but that really didn't happen.

I do feel a little regretful that my grandparents never felt a need to stay close to their extended families that all lived so close by. I never actually knew they were alive and well and living close by. I was aware all my grandparents had big families but that's about it. Aside from very occasionally seeing some of my maternal grandfather's brothers and their families over the holidays, there wasn't any other family socializing. It strikes me as very odd.

Before heading home we stopped in Rutherford, about 15 minutes south, to see my half-brother. He was home alone; his wife was out with the kids. It was the 1st time I saw his house.

I started out earlier this year thinking I might take a small baby step in donating art, maybe 3 or 4 pieces, and see how that went before committing to more. Maybe I wasn't quite ready to let go of it.

But now I am and I've committed to donating 48 pieces of art (!!) to the nonprofit healthcare facility in my hometown. The doctors and nurses who work there all volunteer their time to provide free healthcare (locally) to those who can't afford it.

Three people came to my home today to see the art, including the doctor who founded the organization. I could tell they weren't really people accustomed to looking at art, but they said they would take it all. They are moving into a 5,000 sf space this fall and have a lot of wall space to fill. They would take it now and keep it in storage until then, and they were open to my helping to "curate" and offer some guidance on how to hang it, grouping what with what, when the time comes, which I might like to do.

I spent considerable time beforehand, not only cleaning my dusty first floor but gathering in the family room all the art I was ready to give them so they could just pick and choose what they wanted in that room. I told them I would be happy if they took it all but indicated they could be more selective, if they wishes. That's when the doctor, after being silent for a moment, said that in addition to the clinic itself, they also have a large conference room where doctors and other healthcare providers meet. Just recently they had some meeting there where doctors from U Mass. came. They want to hang art there, too, and I think mom would be happy and honored by that.

So my donation includes about a dozen tapestries to hang on the wall, some quite large, as well as photography, oil and watercolor painting and my mother's signature "woven paintings."

I found the prices for about three-quarters of the pieces in my mother's price book, and going strictly by what she listed them by, their estimated value is close to $13,000.

I probably won't try to claim a tax credit. Art appraisers aren't cheap, and could cost about $1,000, according to gallery people I spoke to. I'm still inclined to just give this group the art without trying to get any tax break, although I did document all I'm giving them and took pix, just in case.

I don't think I could just claim the $13,000 as a tax credit simply becus that's what my mother valued them at. I mean, people could then place any kind of value they wanted on the art. I think an appraiser would assign a value by carefully looking at past sales of like items, along with my mother's reputation, and that's where it would become a pain for me to try to dig around and find that kind of info.

And if I am truly making a gift of something, a part of me says I should do so freely, with no idea in mind of somehow benefiting from it monetarily.

And I already agreed to let the healthcare facility people come back here this Wednesday to pick everything up. The doctor said they would make a little plaque indicating all the art was made by my mother, which is nice.

I am thrilled to see how relatively empty my family room will look once the art is picked up. And to be perfectly honest, the art I'm donating is the stuff I feel would be difficult to sell, just based on my own subjective opinion that these pieces are not as attractive/marketable as other pieces. I suppose I could spend a lifetime trying to sell them, but I don't see this as my mission beyond another year or two or three at most.

I am keeping the best pieces for myself and will try to sell another group I am a little less attached to.

Today's my road trip with dad down memory lane in New Jersey where my extended family lived. Later this summer, I would like to do the same kind of trip to Philly, where older generations lived.

Well, I've talked about it before on this site. A month or so ago I began researching my family tree, and boy, am I hooked!

I am content for now to still be researching just the 1st 4 generations back. As the genealogist at the club meeting i went to last night said, you don't research individuals..you research families.

She also said don't bother paying extra for the international version of Ancestry.com until you have done thorough and comprehensive research on the domestic part of your family.

Here are some of the latest tidbits I've found:

1. My grandfather went to prison! When I researched his name, of course I got back a gazillion results. Even if you think you have an unusual family name, you will still get many thousands of results. You can scan these results by looking at an abbreviated summary of each result, to save time. So when I looked at these results weeks ago, I remember coming across an entry indicating someone with my grandfather's name lived in Elmira, NY. I passed that entry by because I knew he lived in the Garfield/Saddle Brook area of New Jersey.

Well, that entry popped up again in a search last night and I just decided to open it for more details. For one thing, it indicated the middle initial was W., and I had since found out that my grandfather did indeed have a middle name starting with "W", which I hadn't known before.

But anyway, when I opened it up, the address given in Elmira was the New York State Reformatory!

The ONLY reason I discovered this is because he was there in 1930, a census year. As you may know, the federal census is only done every 10 years. So if, say, he had been in prison in 1929 or 1931, I would likely never have known about it because there was no census done in those years.

I couldn't find anything else indicating how long he was there, or for what. I do know my grandmother married him in 1933. I wonder whether she was dating him before prison and decided to stick with him anyway. Perhaps more likely, she met him after he got out of prison...I'm thinking people may not have dated for extended periods of time before marriage, as they may do these days.

I vaguely remember my grandmother telling me my grandfather and his 4 brothers, born and raised in the Harlem area of New York City, were involved in criminal activities like racketeering and loan sharking early on, with possible connections to the Mafia (we're not Italian) and their mother urged them to leave the city, and most of them did eventually go across the river to New Jersey.

I also remember my mother's first cousin, who I connected with after my mother died, telling me her father (my grandfather's brother) had gone to prison.

So my grandfather would have been 22 years old at the time.

I am sure this will surprise my dad. This happened a few years before he and my mother were born and I doubt he knew of it, although he was intrigued by my earlier comments about criminal activities in the family. He told me that when he and my mother were dating, my mother applied for a job with the FBI, but she failed the background check! He was surprised then, but it's quite possible her father's background was not to the feds' liking.

2. In the 1920 federal census, the same grandfather (10 years old at the time) and his family were all listed as being Jewish! This would be a surprise if it was correct since my mother's mother, who married my grandfather, was Roman Catholic and when my mother married my father, his parents were Catholic/Lutheran, and my sister and I were raised Lutheran. My grandfather never went to church.

Subsequent censuses didn't reference any Jewish connection again. I wondered if possibly my grandfather was Jewish but given widespread anti-Jewish sentiment across Europe well before WWII if they just decided not to identify themselves as Jewish anymore, especially if they weren't especially religious. Or was it simply a clerical error, which seems quite possible given these censuses were all filled in by hand.

3. I was able to locate the old movie my dad remembered seeing where he recognized a German-American Bund camp he attended in New Jersey before the war. The spy movie is called The House on 92nd Street and I would like to buy it (just $8) so my dad and I can watch it together.

I am collecting a great deal of paperwork and handwritten notes that could be confusing to make sense of if I don't do something with them soon.

I need a better way to organize all my research findings. You can build a family tree on ancestry.com, but I don't want to be paying $200 a year forever. I need a way to create my own documentation to better organize my data and help make it easier to see where the gaps are. So I'm thinking I'll make an Excel spreadsheet, one tab per person, with individual cells for each key piece of info including name, DOB, known addresses, date of marriage, name of spouse, names, DOBs of siblings, date of death, military service, etc. etc. Many times I'm researching for something specific but I forget the birth date or death death of someone in the middle of it. I need handy reference sheets that organize all of that.

4. Another little puzzle is that in the 1927 Perth Amboy, NJ, city directory, it lists my grandfather (the same one referenced above) as living at a certain address in that city. In 1931, he is still listed there but this time with my grandmother's name next to his. Yet I know they married in 1933, so what gives?? I can't imagine my grandparents would live together before getting married. So this is something I'd like to spend more time on figuring it out.

This Sunday, my dad and I are driving down to New Jersey to check out 4 or 5 key addresses where my dad grew up and where my grandparents grew up before they married. I've already checked the addresses on Zillow and while the Philly addresses where my great grandparents lived still exist (built around 1900), many of the homes in Jersey have been razed and rebuilt.

I got quite a shock last night when I looked up my mother's parents house, of which I have many fond memories. I'd forgotten the street number but found it in an old address book I have. I found the listing with a photo and it's a totally different house. In fact, the whole street would be totally unrecognizable save for the fact there was an access road to a park alongside the house, and that is still there. But soon after my grandfather built that brick house, a huge ugly factory building was erected right behind it. It was always so ugly. But in the Zillow listing, it looks like it's totally gone! Maybe one reason why the current property is valued at $500,000! My grandfather's house was a one story, 2 bedroom, 1 bath house with a spare room and a huge Florida room.

So, yeah, this obsession may last for a while. As I learn more about my ancestors, they become more like real people to me, and it reminds me that the world does not revolve around Patient Saver, that many came before me and many will come after me. I am just a small cog in the wheel of life.

It also really reinforces how people were on the move in those days. Life must have been pretty hard for so many people to be willing to, in many cases, leave family and friends behind to cross continents in search of a better life.

You learn all this in school, but when you learn about it it in the context of your own family background, it becomes so much more meaningful.

Having been thru this experience I can see how homeschooling, a highly individualized method of teaching, could be so engaging.

It makes me feel like I wish I could have known them. Of my 4 grandparents, I only remember ever meeting relations of my mother's father, the one referenced above. All of my grandparents came from large families, but strangely, with a few exceptions, they mostly didn't keep in touch with siblings after they married...at least it didn't appear so to me.

Tomorrow the non-profit healthcare center people are coming to my house to peruse my mother's art and hopefully gratefully accept my selected donations. I am fully prepared to give them 25 or more pieces, including a lot of woven tapestries which seem to be of earlier vintage. I'm trying to clean the downstairs of the house so it looks presentable.

After my trip to Jersey with dad on Sunday, I've got next week off from work and I have a slew of things I want to do, including some maintenance work around the house, a matinee or two, maybe another trip with did to a rare waterfowl sanctuary in Litchfield County, planning for my tag sale next Saturday, and of course, more family tree research.

I was rummaging around in the attic this weekend and came upon this old photo.



This is me and my friend Diane in the mid-1980s. I'm thinking I must have been all of 23 years old! She was a fellow journalist with me at the Eagle Times in Springfield, Vermont. I vaguely remember we took a trip north somewhere, maybe up to the Burlington area, during the time when Bernie Sanders served as governor.

I'm the one on the right, by the way. I still remember that cow t-shirt made by a famous Vermont artist, and the Montreal sweatshirt, too.

Diane was fun to be around. We used to spend Friday nights together talking and drinking and eating nachos with refried beans, cheese and chopped tomatoes. I still think of her when I make those, once in a great while.

I need to spend more time scanning old photos like this before they totally fade away.

Sorry, this is mostly a series of complaints culminating in a Bad Mood.

I was having an okay Friday most of the day, working in the office on a massive pain-in-the-butt project involving a 9-page document I wrote back in March which now my boss says is "hot" and must be deconstructed and put into Excel spreadsheet form by next week.

I was trying to make good progress on it but then at around 3:30 a bunch of guys descended on the floor to change out all the overhead fluorescent bulbs with energy-efficient, overly bright LED bulbs. Like, surgery-bright light. Apparently I wasn't the first to remark on it.

Not sure whose bright idea (no pun intended) it was to have them start while we're all supposed to be working. This proved impossible; when one guy asked me to move so he could install the light, i told him i was on deadline (true) and kept going. They were treating it more like a construction zone than someone else's workplace. So things are crashing around me, loud conversations, very distracting. I gave up and headed for home around 4.

On the way home, the young lady behind me decided she didn't want to remain behind me as the 6-lane highway turned into 2 lanes, so she sped up, passed me on the right and cut me off to slide in ahead of me. We exchanged fingers. Some 18-year-old who thinks she knows how to drive. I swear I run into idiot drivers nearly every day, at some point on my route. There are a lot of places where traffic really backs up and otherwise, it can be a 15-mph crawl, so aggressive drivers will take opportunities they see to get one car ahead or worse, risk an accident. People are SO impatient.

I had to stop at the local Sunoco station as I had a low air pressure light go on again this morning and I didn't have time to check the tire (only fill it) this a.m. on my way in to office. So while they checked out the tire, I sat on a bench in front of the gas station and read a book I need to finish tonight cus it's due tomorrow and I have book club next week.

Some guy pulls up in his car right up to where I was sitting. I mean, real close, as if to annoy me or something. Any closer and he would have hit my leg. I purposefully did not look up from the book. Then when he gets out of the car, he wants me to move my legs so he can pass. If he hadn't pulled up so close, it wouldn't be a problem. He laughed and expressed his surprise that I hadn't looked up when he pulled up. A few minutes later, he's joking with the guy who works there and suggests that I should go walk to the deli to get this guy a sandwich. Really weird. Anyway, $30 and a new valve stem later, I'm finally on my way home.

When I got home, I saw my lawn hadn't been mowed. I had asked mower guy to come on Friday (today) instead of Thursday, his usual day, since the pavers had showed up to repave the asphalt driveway at lower end. And I realized belatedly that I forgot to mention to mower guy in my phone message that a tape would be across the driveway. That is to prevent delivery trucks from driving up it but the lawn mowers are fine. I'm wondering now if he was annoyed for showing up and seeing the tape decided not to mow, even tho i told him to come today. Now I have to wait and wonder if and when he will show up. The grass is pretty tall.

I'm feeling very tired in general today and decided to collapse on bed and upon doing so, felt something on my foot, and that's when i saw the cat throw up on the sheet. Luckily it didn't soak through, but then I had to change all the sheets before I could relax.

It's the little things that drive me nuts!! In the grand scheme of things, not too important and all will be forgotten tomorrow.

Even though there was grass growing up through my just-paved new asphalt driveway (bizarre) the paver guy has been very responsive. After blow-torching the grass and melting the asphalt in that area did not work (the grass grew there again) they came up yesterday and when I came home I found them preparing to repave the last 4 feet on the lower end of the driveway. For good measure, one of the crew told me they actually dug up the grass and sprayed weed killer on it as well.

My neighbor across the street let me park my car in his driveway. They said keep vehicles off it for at least 2 days, so I called my lawn mower guy this a.m. to ask if he could mow tomorrow afternoon instead of today. Hopefully he'll get the message before he shows up here.

It is a bit of a pain because I often have delivery trucks coming here and I'm never sure if the driver will actually walk up my long driveway instead of leaving a package by the curb. I can put a sign there that walking on it is ok, but not driving. If I had known they were going to repave it yesterday, I would not have ordered things online, like the 3 macrame plant hangers I found on Etsy.

A throwback to my younger days, I fondly remember making macrame plant hangers in my teens. Not sure I'd remember how to now.

Today will be my 4th physical therapy session for the toes. After the last session, which included electrical stimulation on foot/leg, it did seem like my toes weren't nearly as stiff as they have been, but that feeling only lasted for about 20 minutes. I will make sure and tell them that.

My dad and I are planning a day trip in a few weeks down to Garfield/Saddle Brook/Passaic, NJ, where much of my family settled (there and Philadelphia) after arriving from Europe.

Once we settle on a date, dad suggested I invite my mother's cousin out to dinner with us before we head back to Connecticut as she lives down that way.

I discovered that a robin has built a nest in the very near vicinity of my new side driveway patio that I was enjoying so much. Now I feel I should avoid using it until the robin's babies have fledged. I'm not even sure it has eggs yet, but I have seen it sitting on the nest. I feel I should do whatever I can to help it achieve success since I remember a few years ago a robin that built a nest on the other side of my house abandoned its nest after a crow discovered it. I was able to shoo the crow away from it by banging on the window, but by then, it was too late. The robins must have known the crows would return sometime when I wasn't around.

As it is, the nest is in a very iffy area, if you ask me. I think the birds know instinctively that building a nest so close to the house is helpful becus predators are less likely to roam that area. However, the nest, while it's about 6 feet high if I'm standing in the driveway looking up at the shrubbery along the retaining wall, it's only about 2 feet off the ground if you're in the backyard, and a raccoon could easily reach the nest. So I don't know what its chances are.

I've lowered the shades on the 2 windows in my sunroom facing the nest so the cat doesn't spot it and harass it from inside. I'm also going to relocate the hummingbird feeder away from that area so I have no need to go in and out through my sunroom door every few days. And I'll stop feeding birds in that area too, although I like to watch the birds from the sun room. The seed would just attract critters.

This Saturday is CT Trails Day and while I have a bunch of art-related pickups/dropoffs I have to do, I'm considering skipping yoga (again) so I can squeeze in a few hours for either a hike or trail maintenance on a nearby trail. If I do that, I can then get a trails patch. Which is what's motivating me to participate.

I have really not been spending much money these days, aside from the redo of my driveway and a trip to PA to meet up with Dido, but I must say I fell in love with a pair of leather woven sneakers at Bloomingdales for the ridiculous price of $248. And there's a pair of really nice sandals for $145 at Nordstrom's. I rarely if ever spend more than $100 on shoes but I must say I'm tempted. The nearest Bloomie's to me is down in White Plains, where I don't envision myself going, and it's too much of a risk to buy them online and they don't fit. I don't like the hassle of returns and would rather have the ability to return something like that to a store. There IS a Nordstrom's by me at the mall, so I could check out the fit of the sandals there. I've had back luck buying shoes online as to fit/comfort.

I've settled on a June Saturday later this month to have the doctor from the local non profit healthcare center and some others come to my home to look at the art I'd like to donate. I want to donate a ton of weavings which I don't really care for, but I'm not sure they will like them either.

I'm also for some reason feeling very self-conscious having these visitors come to the house so I'm going to have to really clean the main level they'll see. I'm also hoping it won't be sweltering hot since I don't have central air and it could be uncomfortable in here.

Yesterday was a super warm and muggy day following on the heels of same the day before. However, there was a small breeze in the afternoon and I found it so comfortable in the shade of my new side patio that I brought the book club book out and did something I rarely do during the daytime, with a small bowl of green grapes and the rhododendrons above me in bloom.



I also bought a few more pots for the Stairway to Heaven and filled them with impatiens, which will soon be overflowing for the resident hummingbird population.

I also did some yard work, weeding, and tidying up yesterday and I see that the onions I planted a week or so ago are sending up thin shoots.

I also had fun with my new toy, a Black & Decker blower, very lightweight to carry, that makes cleaning off all the leaves/spent flowers that fall onto the driveway from overhanging shrubs a BREEZE to clean up.

This particular chore would probably take me at least a half hour to sweep up the old-fashioned way; now it's literally a 5-minute job.

On Friday evening I drove over to friend R.'s condo and we hung out and talked with his dog. I tried to help him print out some stuff from Aviation Week which he wants to use for the helicopter museum he's been involved with for years. I had more luck when I tried to do it at home. On the way home from his place around 8 p.m. I came upon a massive snapping turtle lumbering across the road. The females risk life and limb to cross roads at this time of year to lay their eggs. I pulled over to the side of the road to ensure no one hit it, but the other drivers seemed very considerate and willing to wait, so I got back in the car. What I SHOULD have done is snap a photo but forgot I had the camera with me.

I also spent more time on the family tree research and this time discovered 2 sisters of my paternal great grandfather on my grandmother's side.

Also found more addresses I can check out in person, where my maternal great grandfather lived in Garfield, NJ, for instance. Occupations like "wire tester," "caster" and "mill worker" abound, reflecting the industrial revolution of their time.

I also now have the maiden name of my great great grandmother, another Irish name, as well as the name of my great great grandfather. They all appeared to have remained in one county of Northern Ireland until they emigrated to the US, which makes it easy to spot other connections to the tree.

The June meeting of my town's genealogy club, the final meeting of the season, is, with perfect timing, to focus on how to use the "new" ancestry.com. Perfect!! I have fumbled my way around with it but I am sure there will be a thing or two I can learn from this meeting, so I can't wait!

I've continued to implement the recommendations of the T. Rowe Price CFP. It really has been fine-tuning, nothing major. I somewhat diversified my small cap allocation to now be 9% in both small and mid cap stock. I also diversified my largely investment grade bond allocation to include a small, 3% allocation to high yield and 6% to international bonds. I still have 21% of my total bond allocation in investment grade bonds.

My short-term/cash allocation remains at 10% while I got rid of the REIT (a sector fund) and ratcheted up my international stock allocation from 15% to 18%.

Last night I spent a few hours fleshing out what I knew about my great grandfather and his 8 kids. All the kids except my grandmother were born in the US; she was born in Ireland. Hers was not a happy childhood, due in large part to her father.

I'm sure getting away from her father and starting a new life with her husband in New Jersey must have seemed very appealing to my grandmother. The rest of the family and all her siblings remained in the Philly area where they were born.

Probably one of the biggest successes of my few hours of research was finally learning where in Ireland my great grandparents were from. They came from a small hamlet called Derrytrasna in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Today it has just 250 people residing there and it's largely agricultural from what I can tell.

My other big find was the maiden name of my great grandmother, which opens up a lot of further research using that family name.

It was quite thrilling to be able to view and then print out copies of the original World War II draft registration card of my great grandfather, for instance, which revealed that the patriarch feared by the entire family, who was often drunk, was just 5'4" tall and weighed 154 pounds. He had blue eyes and dark hair with a "ruddy" complexion. Who would have thought you could capture information related to physical appearance by researching the family tree?

I relied on 3 primary sources to get myself started on ancestry.com; 1st, the "mini" family tree I wrote as a term paper for a college course. I relied on my letters to grandparents as a source of information for this project. I also got a great deal of info from a single letter I received back from my great cousin Peter in Reichenbach, Germany. He passed away a few years ago which I deeply regret; i remember him telling me he was the last surviving H....in Germany.
My 3rd and final source was my dad, who provided little details as far as the names of my grandparents' siblings, a detail I hadn't captured prior to this though I remember hearing certain names here and there.

I was getting so excited last night about what I was learning and I wanted to tell someone about it. It was then that I realized the only person I could share this with whose enthusiasm would equal mine was my father, so I drove over there this morning to share all the details.

He suggested we spend the night at a cheap hotel in the area of New Jersey where he grew up, and where all of my grandparents lived. We could look up some of the houses they lived in during their earlier years (before I was around), although to me it would be more interesting to check out the family home in Philly since it involved an earlier generation. This is what I love about my dad; at 83, he's still up for an adventure! I checked Zillow for all the addresses I had and the ones in Philly must be in a very bad neighborhood as they are condos now going for about $160K a piece. Or maybe real estate prices are just that much lower there, I'm not sure.

I found photos of the address where my dad grew up and the house (actually, 2 attached condos now) was built in 2015, leading me to realize that the original home must have been razed. The Philly rowhouses mentioned above were built in 1900 and they still stand.

I even printed out a copy of my great grandfather's death certificate, which reveals an amazing amount of information. He was 75 when he was hit by a car at a specific, named corner in Philly, brought to a hospital with a fractured forearm and that led to bronco pneumonia. The "informant" listed on the certificate was a name I recognized as one of his sons, and the address also correlated, so I could positively assert this was correct.

There's a lot of detective work involved in figuring out if the over one million records that pop up when you type in a relative's name is in fact your relative. That's why it's helpful to have any kind of info like birth dates, marriage dates, death dates, names and ages of siblings and the like.

I even have the name of the vessel my great grandfather came over on from Ireland, to the port of NY. (I found it much easier to focus on researching 1 person at a time, that's why so much focus on this one person for now.) And life several others I researched, he had just a 5th grade education. He listed his occupation as "Laborer."

Looking at the lives of my grandparents, they all were able to make comfortable lives for themselves by working hard. The ones who had the most success included my paternal grandfather, who was an auto mechanic and owned his own gas station, and my maternal grandfather's brother, who owned an insulation business. Which is just reinforcement of what we all know already, that the real money is to be made, not by working for others, but by working for yourself.

Of all my great grandfather's children, only one went to college, at LaSalle University in the Philly area. After graduating, he worked at the post office but was fired for some reason. After that he became a teacher but only did that for a period of time. After that, he became a bar owner and that was his most successful endeavor. My dad remembers him telling him that the illegal slot machines at the bar were the biggest money maker.

It would take another generation, my dad's, before more descendants got a college degree.

As for my dad's father, the one from Germany, I briefly mentioned to dad that I had just stumbled upon a concentration camp record from Dachau, which coincidentally was the one I visited when I was in Germany 30 years ago. It listed a Friedrich H. (my last name) as having been brought to that camp as a prisoner in 1942 and the homeland was listed as "Germany/Austria." He died there but there wasn't information about when. I don't know if he is at all related (there seemed to be plenty of others with the same last name although you would think it very unusual), but since he appeared to be German, I wondered if that meant he must have been Jewish. Unless he was a German caught doing something pretty bad, like helping Jews escape? (My grandfather was Lutheran and so all of us became Lutheran also.

I know that outside of Germany, they were putting certain eastern Europeans and gypsies in the camps, but I hadn't thought they did that to fellow Germans. Definitely something to continue looking into but the problem is that I don't speak or read German, so this is a big stumbling block in my research. That's why I quickly searched to researching my grandmother's side of the family since I knew it would be in English.

Aside from this, I bought 2 cucumber seedlings at a local farm and later in the afternoon i drove over to my friend R.'s place where we sat on his front lawn with his dog as I told him all about the family tree stuff and other things. I just got home a little while ago.

I hope to stay pretty close to home this weekend without having to drive all over the place on errands, but I will be going to yoga locally tomorrow and getting some free compost at the landfill. And definitely spending more time on the family tree.

I'm working from home today and I have tomorrow off, so my 4-day weekend has almost started! It will be an easy day, although yesterday in the office was pretty busy.

I have a week off coming up in mid-June, and I'm planning on having a garage sale to try to sell a lot of odds and ends of my mother's. I think I'd like to try to spend some time this weekend starting to bring things to the garage and pricing them. At least this time I have plenty of shelving and tables (also my mother's) which I can spread out on the driveway and use for the sale.

My friend R. has been asking me to come visit him in a town about 40 minutes from here. I was thinking since I have extra time off, this weekend would be a good time, but he works 6 days a week (not full-time, just 3 or 4 hours a day). So he wants me to come at probably the worst possible time during the entire long weekend, 5:30 pm tomorrow night! I'd have to leave at about 5 pm during rush hour when the crazies are out.

I have always butted heads with him, but we've been friends for 30 years now. He has insisted there is no west to east traffic on a certain road i would need to take to get to his place, even though i know that to be untrue since i drive it to commute in to work 3 times a week. He wrote in an email that I was "overreacting again to a nonexistent traffic problem." Which pissed me off, so now I don't want to go. It somehow often devolves into a contest of wills and he is always quick to externalize the source of the problem: me, overreacting. He is definitely pushing my buttons; he may as well be doing what Trump did, referencing me having my period or something.

This week I started physical therapy again for my numb toes on right foot. The numb toes developed after pulling my hamstring last spring, but I only went to physical therapy for 2 visits before my mother's health declined and I had to stop.

So I'm committed to going this time for a full month, twice a week, to give it a fair shot at possibly helping with the numb toes. I am not especially optimistic since it's been over a year now, but I feel it's worth the time and expense to give it a fair shot.

I have daily homework exercises to do too, twice a day, which I plan to be diligent about. It's 6 different exercises that stretch the tendons in the back of the leg and for symmetry purposes, I'm doing them with both legs.

This past Tuesday night I went to see The Race at our local one-screen movie theater. It's about the life of the athlete Jesse Owens. It was pretty good.

I'm entering 3 smaller pieces of my mother's in another art exhibit, this time at a frame shop in her hometown; she was very fond of the people there so I feel good about showing there. It's not going to sell if it just sits at my place. The fee is $20 for 3 pieces not to exceed 24" in length and the theme is "Summer." I've already picked out the pieces: one is a woven tapestry of tulips, another is a paper abstract of flowers and the third is a "woven painting" of sailboats on the sea. The drop-off isn't til early June; it would be great if something sold.

So far in the veggie garden I have a few rows of onions very recently planted, along with 2 good-sized eggplant seedlings I put in this past Monday. I also have basil, peppermint and 2 cherry tomato seedlings in large pots in my driveway.

I am wanting to get cucumber seedlings next, along with some elephant ears which I thought would look great with its large foliage against the corner by the stone wall and paver driveway. I've set up a small table out there with 3 chairs and it looks quite inviting.


Here it is in the early morning light. You may not think it looks like much, but this is so much nicer than the ugly gray asphalt that was there before!



The dark area behind the chair in the middle is the stone staircase leading to the backyard. This whole area does get early morning sun but for most of the day, as the sun turns in the sky, it is quite shady, cool and inviting. That's why I have a pot of impatiens hanging in the rhododendron. Which by the way is going to look really spectacular when it's in bloom in another week or so.

The table has a round 36" diameter top and the 2 concrete legs were actually the base of a concrete bench I used to have but the bench was chipped and damaged when a tree fell on it during a storm, so I got rid of it but kept the base, which really works great with the glass top.


On top of the table you can see 8 or 9 very round stones. I picked these off a beach somewhere (for the life of me I can't remember if it was a beach in Costa Rica on the Nicaraguan border or somewhere near Montreal, which is not on the coast(!) so really can't recall exactly where) but I will always remember that because when we returned to the US, the customs officer inspecting our trunk saw them and really yelled at me. However, he did not take them away from me. I did feel bad (I guess it is like people picking up seashells, which someday will be gone if everyone keeps doing it), but I have always loved using them in my garden displays.

I'm also seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as far as probate goes. I'm saying that because I'm nearing the end of the 5-month period of time you have to give any creditors to step forward and present any outstanding bills. I'm pretty sure we're done with all bills except for one last one from her accountant; i'm still waiting for him to complete the estate tax return for state of CT, which is due June 28. In July, I'll be able to file the next form with probate, which lists outstanding claims/bills paid, not including funeral expenses and accountant, which for some reason are to be listed on another form that comes a little later.

I spent some time last week comparing the total balance of assets upon death, subtracted bills paid and final expenses, and while it was off by about $1,000, a trip to the bank and a helpful banker there helped figure things out so everything balances out. I am hopeful to be able to disburse remaining assets of about $88K to my sister and myself as beneficiaries. (We started out with about $108K in her checking. This was the money left over from sale of her house, but I had a few big bills to pay to the nursing home (about $12,000) and state of CT for reimbursement of Medicare withholding (about $7,000).

She had quite a bit more money in May, when I first moved her to assisted living, but assisted living, and then the nursing home, quickly ate into her assets during just a 6-month time period before she died. It makes me sad, just becus of how the system works to suck up what would otherwise have been our inheritance. I knew this all along and I don't begrudge the nursing home/assisted living payments for services rendered, but the sheer size of the bills is scary frightening and seems disproportionate, I guess, when you consider how quickly $6,000 a month bills will erode a nest egg.

If I had my way I would have moved mom to assisted living earlier because she was having lots of problems and it was all very scary trying to deal with it, but she didn't want to move and so for probably a year I was there on my weekends and on the phone with her a lot trying to manage things that were increasingly confusing to her, like bills, new locks on the door she couldn't figure out, how to use her thermostat, an air purifier and the like. There were so many little crises concerning things that previously had not been confusing. But mom resisted not just moving elsewhere, but even having an aide come to the condo a few times a week to help her. She was used to her independence and I can't say I blame her, but at the same time, I knew she badly needed help.

In hindsight, if I had moved her earlier, it's very likely I'd be looking at a much smaller estate now, if one existed at all.

The big picture: mom's total assets before moving into assisted living were about $110K in savings and the condo sale netted out at $129K, for a total of $239,000. My sister and I will have received a total of roughly $89,000 each by this fall, which represents about 75% of gross assets before we incurred all the bills.

So once again I find that mom unknowingly preserved more than half her estate for her daughters, something I know was always firmly in the back of her mind. Thank you, mom.

Once I complete that particular responsibility by around September, I hope, I can breath a sigh of relief it is done. I can then continue to focus on showing and selling art for some time to come, certainly through 2016.

Thought you'd like to see some pix of my trip to the Poconos to meet up with Dido on the Delaware River.



Here's where we stayed, with direct frontage on the Delaware River. Also within walking distance was the nation's oldest (circa 1800) wire cable suspension bridge. While waiting for Dido to show up, I walked across that bridge from PA into New York state and back again in about 20 minutes.




Some bucolic views from the bridge overlooking the Delaware River.

We had a great lunch in a cute little town yesterday and then wandered down the very small main drag and aw this, which I think is a grain elevator:



Before heading home today, we went to Grey Towers National Historic Site in Milford, PA and we wandered around the beautiful gardens for a while.






Walled garden




How interesting to see a bust set into the stone wall of the home, which once served as the residence of a Pennsylvania governor.


Scrollwork detail on garden gate


One of two ivy-covered towers



On the drive home I found an inch worm crawling on my left hand as I drove on the highway. I was able to transfer it to my right hand, and then to a fabric sandwich baggie I'd brought some fruit in, which I laid on the passenger side floor of the car.

I stopped for gas and at a local garden nursery form some veggie plants before arriving home. I looked for the little inch worm but could not find him and worried that he'd bake to death as the heat inside the car built up once I got out.

I fed the cats and gave them some TLC, pulled off a heavy shirt I was wearing, as well as a tank top and put on something lighter to garden in. I sat down on the bed for a minute and lo and behold, the inch worm was on my left hand again!! How did that happen???

I brought him outside.

May can be such a spectacular time of year for all things that bloom.

Taking center stage in my yard is a doublefile viburnum that was just a wee stick seedling about 15 years ago.

Now we have this show every spring:



This shrub is really huge; actually, it is the mama shrub and many smaller seedlings gone wild surrounding the original plant, growing wider in circumference with each passing year.

I have to prune the branches when they begin to overhang the driveway on the right.





I went out there today to get these pix and the bees are loving it. It must be like a beacon for them. As dusk approaches, all becomes dark, except the brilliant white of this viburnum still stands out.

My results:

Money Avoidance = 2.20

Your score on the money avoidance scale suggests that you do not exhibit significant money avoidance beliefs. In fact, research has shown that your score on this scale is similar to those who have been identified as wealthier, wiser, and more highly educated.

*Money Worship = 4.00

Your money worship score suggests that you endorse money worship beliefs.

At their core, money worshipers are convinced that the key to happiness and the solution to all of their problems is to have more money. Individuals who score high on the in the area of money worship are more likely to have lower income, lower net worth, and credit card debt. Yikes.

Money Status = 1.71

Your score on the money status scale shows that you do not hold money status beliefs.

Money status seekers see net-worth and self-worth as synonymous. They may pretend to have more money than they do, and as a result are at risk of overspending.

*Money Vigilance = 3.50

Your money vigilance score indicates that you endorse money vigilance beliefs.

The money vigilant are alert, watchful, and concerned about their financial welfare. They believe it is important to save and for people to work for their money and not be given financial handouts. Research has found that higher money vigilance scores are positively associated with higher levels of financial health.

I recently signed up for Ancestry.com. I really haven't made any startling discoveries yet, or traced beyond my grandparents' parents, information I already had, but it's still a thrill to verify certain information and see your great grandparents' signature on census rolls when your grandmother was just a little girl.

My grandmother was a bit of a storyteller, so when I interviewed her for a mini family tree project when I was in college, I wasn't sure how much of what she told me was true. Her parents were from Austria and supposedly my great grandfather on my mother's side made clocks and music boxes for this guy, Franz Josef I.



So I've known all along I'm a bit of a mutt, with Polish, Austrian and Russian on mom's side and German and Irish on dad's side. But hopefully I'll learn more. I really haven't had time to learn my way around Ancestry.com or dig for something new, I just reviewed their "hints."

After work today I had an EMG test done on my right leg/foot. It's a nerve conduction test and I wanted to see if I have any nerve damage that's causing my toes to be numb since last year.

It was kind of an unpleasant test where he was sticking little needles in my leg and sending electrical impulses that made my leg or foot jerk. Of course, compared to the 2 or 3 spinal taps, I've had, this was nothing.

The tests showed that everything is normal, which is sort of good news cus no permanent damage. Doc said i could have a pinched nerve or sciatica, which "could" be helped by physical therapy. But he said if it doesn't improve in a few weeks, it probably won't ever, and I'll just have to live with it. He said usually they figure out what area to focus on by whether the pain you're feeling is relieved, but in my case there's no pain at all, just numb toes that came on shortly after I pulled my hamstring in that leg last year. I began physical therapy then but could not continue it beyond a few visits because things were getting worse with my mother and I had to focus on that.

Thursday I have to drive into New Haven with 2 colleagues to hear our company chairman talk. Blah.

Today we met for a pizza lunch as a send-off for a woman who worked for us as a contractor for about 3 years, then was let go, and after about a year of being unemployed, finally found a job in Columbus Ohio. She is driving out there next week to find an apartment to lease in about 3 days and starts the job end of May! Not much time to get ready! I did that when I entered law school in my 20s and had to find an apartment in the Boston area in a single weekend. Needless to say, the place I found was kind of a dump, but the price was very cheap. I just didn't have time to look longer.

So I have this gorgeous new driveway that everyone compliments me on. However, there's been a problem with the asphalt portion. Down in one corner near the road, the GRASS is GROWING through the asphalt.

My feeling is that the asphalt is too thin. He wrote on the invoice that they'd lay 2 and 3/4" of compressed asphalt and this is maybe a quarter inch tops in that area (and looks on the thin side everywhere else, though maybe not quite so bad as this spot). So no wonder.

Luckily, the guy hasn't left me high and dry. He sent his man up 2 weeks ago and to my surprise the guy used a blow torch to melt the asphalt and presumably kill the grass.

But now the grass is back so I called the contractor again and to his credit he immediately called me back. His son is graduating this weekend but he promised to come up and see what's going on next weekend, so I'm satisfied with that.

This weekend I have a fun little excursion to a little town in PA, about a 2-hour drive, where I am meeting a fellow blogger from here! I don't know yet if she wants me to say who it is, so I won't. It's just a fun little trip that is just one overnight becus we both have pets that prevent us from going on a longer trip. I'm looking forward to a change of scenery, some good conversation and maybe a hike...weather looking cooperative.

Dad and I saw The Revenant last weekend. It had a rather gruesome bear mauling scene, but otherwise, not a bad movie. Leonardo was pretty good.

I met a nice woman at the Mindfulness lecture I went to who was a book club member,so it's motivated me to start attending that group and reading their books, which I'm doing now.

There are so many groups I want to get involved with in my hometown. It sort of reminds me of college, where you could join any club you wanted! It is kind of a liberating feeling.

Making good progress spending toward my target bonus on my new TD Bank card. I've already spent $952 on my way to spending $1500 and haven't even gotten the 1st statement yet, so I'm in good shape.

I hope to plant onion sets in my garden this weekend.

All the lovely phlox are in bloom alongside my driveway. Everything looks great.

In 2015 my goal was to attend at least one meeting or event a month, as a form of social outlet. I never hit that goal because I was taking care of my mother, and even when I had time to go to something, I was too tired, both physically and emotionally.

This year, I kept that same goal up on my sidebar and I've hit that goal out of the ballpark!

There is SO much to do in my hometown. In all my 20 years here, I mainly hit most of the fairs, festivals, craft shows and that sort of thing. I made it to the evening book club a few times but that was about it. I worked full time, and there were some jobs that entailed a very long commute. One job I had for 7 years involved a 75-minute commute which was really exhausting.

I'm doing much more in town now; keeping busy is helping me get past my mother's death, which is still on my mind when I am not doing anything. So it's best to keep busy.

The big reason I can start doing these things is because I still have the 2 work at home days I started when my mother was ill, and I wanted to see her during the day, during the week. Now that I'm no longer going to the nursing home on my lunch breaks or after work, I've found those 2 days at home open up so much extra time in my life. And not having to commute on those days means I also have more energy and interest in doing things right after work.

For most of my working life, work and the commute were so draining that I had little appetite for doing anything else during the week, the result being that I crammed everything I had to do, personal errands and stuff around the house, on the weekends.

This past week I went to a talk on mindfulness at the library. It was presented by a man who was very upfront about his struggle with depression and anxiety, which led him to mindfulness as a way of living more fully in the present. It was pretty interesting and gave me a little more insight into how to achieve it, because my mind is always going in a million directions.

There's a young man in town who has begun organizing volunteers to plant a grove of fruit trees along our new walking trails. No particular reason why, he just wants to do it, though i remember a quote I read where he said he just wants to make my town "as close to heaven on earth as possible."

There are a lot of wonderful things happening here, and many of them came about following the dark days of the 12/14 shootings.

The families of many of those children have formed different groups that pursue various things, depending on the special interests of their child. One of the little girls was a big animal lover, so there is a foundation setting about to establish a new animal sanctuary in town. It was also this group that sponsored the meeting I attended on how to care for your pet rabbit.

Next weekend is a traditional Irish music concert at the meeting house. I would love to go to this and am looking for someone to go with me.

Our town's forest association is busy eradicating invasive plants from some of their land holdings and I donated some of my perennials that I was selling to the forest association which they already planted in an open field they intend to turn into a wildflower meadow. It's on a main road so I will see it often.

We have several different garden clubs in town, another one of the groups I eventually want to get involved with. One of them is responsible for caring for all the little gardens that occupy our traffic triangles. I would like to see them establish a flower garden at a largish "traffic triangle" at the intersection of two of our paved walking trails. It would be so nice to see a pop of color amidst the woods. In any event, I'll be hitting their big spring plant sale next Saturday.

My dad wanted to see The Revenant (which I think will be a little bloody/violent) so I'm taking him to my town's single screen, $2 movie theater, which I think he'll enjoy. This is the 1930-built old town hall which is in the middle of a fund drive to replace the original balcony seats in the theater. I donated $150 and my employer will match it.

After the movie, we'll do a late lunch somewhere and I would like to run up the gallery to pick up the latest framed pieces. But first, this morning, I am going to yoga class, the church tag sale, the library (so I can get next months' book selection), WalMart, gas for the car, the pet food store and Lowes, for some veggie plants and maybe some lavender.

A lot of things to do, and I am really enjoying it.

Earth's Treasures

Today I had my follow-up call with T. Rowe Price Advisory Services.

Here's the big picture rundown:

Based on my total annual savings (which they erroneously recorded as $37,500 annually instead of $31,000 annually), they recommend that in my 1st year of retirement, I withdraw $35,455 as income ($2,955 a month) instead of $43,000 a year ($3,583 a month). Every year thereafter I would adjust for inflation.

This is not too much of a biggie to me since I've been generally aiming at between $40 and $43K income in retirement.

They did not include Social Security income at all, so whenever I do decide to begin collecting SS, it will just make things that much easier.

They also did not factor in any inheritances, other than what is already in my accounts.

They are not suggesting many changes, only fine-tuning, in my overall and current asset allocation of 61% stocks, 25% bonds and 14% short-term investments.

They're recommending 60% stocks, 30% bonds and 10% in short-term investments. So they are mainly suggesting I move some money that's now in "cash" into bond funds, for upside growth potential.

Based on what I told them about my investment preferences, they're recommending I remain in a "balanced" portfolio.

Getting into more detail:
Domestic stocks: Increase my mid cap and international exposure by 3% each, decrease my sector/specialty exposure (a REIT and healthcare fund) from 6% to 0%.

Bonds: Decrease investment grade bonds by 4% and increase high Yield by 3% and international bonds by 6% (i currently have no exposure to international bonds or high yield).

Short-Term Investments: They recommend I decrease my short-term investments, which includes my CDs my online money market accounts as well as my Vanguard money market, by 4%. I would still have nearly 2 years of living expenses, or $80,000, in short-term investments after doing so.

She's going to make some final adjustments to her numbers based on my correcting her on my annual savings, along with new info on the 401k employer match I received (an extra $3536 which I guess I can count on annually) and then I'll be able to access it online again. The revised report will have suggested retirement withdrawal amounts each year, which includes adjustments for inflation, so I don't have to trouble my math-challenged brain.

They will also check in with me annually or I can contact them in the interim if there are any big changes to my financial life, like a layoff, inheritance being finalized, etc.

In other news: I met with local florist today and she chose 5 of the 8 pieces of art I brought to exhibit for sale in her shop. They are priced on the high side, so not sure how they'll do. Each time I draw up a little contract agreement, I do a better job of it! I also created some take-home bios for anyone who purchases a piece, so they can learn more about the artist.

Also followed up on the first real estate brokerage I contacted about long-term art exhibits in their offices. It probably wouldn't work there because they don't have extra wall space, but she asked me to send jpgs and prices anyway, which I did. She meets and knows a lot of people so she could possibly send them my way maybe.

In the meantime, I've decided that each week my goal will be to do at least one tangible thing to find new markets or further market my mother's art. It all takes a fair amount of time. So next week my goal will be to contact a 2nd real estate brokerage in my hometown, with the same query/offer about showing my mother's art. This idea had been suggested to me by someone at the art association who knew someone else who had done pretty well selling their art in this way. I would focus on the larger pieces for the brokerages since the smaller stuff can go in various gift shops/galleries.

I still have at least 2 more local shops in mind that I might like to approach. Also, the florist suggested, since I had mentioned how some of the art might appeal to interior decorators, of an interior designer who just set up shop in Sandy Hook Center. Couldn't find him online so will go down there in person to get the name.

I'm getting plenty of activity at my new suction cup window bird feeder, but it's driving Luther nuts as he lunges toward the birds each time he sees them. So they're a bit more timid that usual and I'm debating whether to move the feeder elsewhere.


My new windchimes, made out of grandma's silverware.

After all the rainy weather of the past week, the sun came out around 1 p.m.

Perfect timing. I sold another $28 worth of perennials and was ready for my hike at the Audubon Bent of the River.

A red-crowned sparrow greeted me in the parking lot:



I decided to head for the Cascade Trail as it promised a small waterfall.



There were small boardwalks like this one as I traversed a small brook at the bottom of the waterfall.



As I got deeper into the woods and headed upward in an s-shaped curve, the trail narrowed and became more indistinct.



The lovely Cascades..



After all the rain we had this past week, everything was draped in lichens and mosses.



The loop back was a quiet woodland...




...followed by one more boardwalk that meandered alongside the riverbanks where I saw swallows nesting in the sandy bank.

I see a lot of you are talking about various diets and like me, you probably want to lose some weight.

I came across an excellent USDA site for this years ago and really like it then, then lost track of it until I searched for it now and found they revamped it so it's even better.

Check out supertracker.usda.gov

You can get all sorts of detailed information about the nutrient/caloric makeup of different foods, but what I really like about it is that you can keep an online food and exercise journal while inputting your goals and so on.

You have to enter the foods you've eaten one by one, with an estimated amount/volume, so it can get kind of tedious if you eat something you made yourself that has a lot of ingredients. So for breakfast this morning, I had my usual homemade granola, but I'd like an accurate measurement since mine is very low fat. So I had to individually add oats, raisins, walnuts, olive oil, flax seed, etc. So it looks like my usual granola breakfast comes to 871 calories, or close to half what my daily intake should be given that i would like to lose 12 lbs.

And just from entering the ingredients of my breakfast granola, I can see from their bar chart that I've reached X% of my recommended fruit target,, etc. This is where I don't like the program, becus the USDA is using their recommended guidelines which I disagree with when it comes to how much dairy, protein, salt, etc I should be eating. In fact, based on the fact I ate a whole banana and about 1.5 oz of raisins, the site indicates I've reached 91% of m y daily fruit allowance!! Obviously way off for a vegan, who is going to load their plate up with fruit, veggies and grains and eliminate the dairy entirely. So far I don't see a way to customize the program to eliminate certain things you don't agree with.

The exercise portion of the website is just as detailed.

You can monitor and track your progress with their nifty charts, etc. IMO, this is even better than the Vivofit I spent $99 on which most of the time has trouble syncing with their website online.

However, the USDA site only allows you to input how much you walked, for instance, by time spent, not distance traveled in steps, as the Vivofit does. You have a choice on the USDA site of choosing from about 6 different paces, eg, 2.8 miles per hour, but there's no guidance given on how to estimate how many miles per hour you walk, so I'm just guessitmating.

So anyway, I'm very excited about this really detailed program. You just need to set up your profile to get started..

I've had gazillions of bird feeders over the years, but this is the first time I've tried a window feeder with suction cups.



I was a little skeptical at first about how well those suction cups would stay adhered to the window, but they actually seem quite sturdy. Sturdy enough for a cardinal to perch on, in addition to the house finch shown here and some black capped chicadees.

I think the birds are still a bit wary, possibly because Luther may have lunged at them more than once. If I see a bird come to the feeder, I'll turn off the indoor lights so it's lighter outside than it is indoors, and thus harder for the birds to see me.

I've been a bird watcher for about 20 years, ever since an old boyfriend turned me on to it.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I am hoping this day won't be too difficult. We just had another passing rain shower but it's supposed to be sunny by mid-afternoon. Before the sun comes out I plan to head outdoors to an area Audubon sanctuary for a solo hike. I've only been there a few times, probably because, at least in the past, they requested you "schedule" your visit so they could be sure there was no overcrowding at the sanctuary! It's a pretty big place; in fact, the last time I hike there with a date, we got lost, and it was a very long walk back. But having to schedule it just seems like a real nuisance. I'm just going over there today; it's doubtful many people will be on the trails with the dark and rainy weather we've been having and it being Mother's Day.

I sold another $20 worth of Amsonia Blue Stem and some Jacob's Ladder yesterday. I would say selling perennials on Facebook tag sale sites, especially this time of year, is extremely easy, easier than selling most anything else.

I've decided to enter the invitational art exhibit put on by the Easton Art Council here in Fairfield County later this month and into June with a lovely paper abstract by my mother. You can see the piece I'm entering here:
http://paulareneemulti-mediaart.blogspot.com/

While it's just a two-week show, I decided to enter anyway because there is no entry fee and they are only asking for a 20% commission on "sold" items, which is pretty reasonable. Its soft pastel colors are a good choice for a spring show, I think. My mother priced it at $400.

I'll be dropping it off this weekend and hope to attend the opening reception May 21.

Working from home today.

Early this morning I brought the car to local garage to see if they could get to the bottom of the slow air leak I have in a back tire. I've brought the car to Town Fair Tire probably 5 times since last winter, and still the "low air pressure" light comes on every so often.

Happily, I didn't have to leave the car at local garage as I envisioned; they replaced the valve stem so I'm hoping this will finally fix it. Although Town Fair advertises free tire repairs, even if you didn't buy the tire from them, I have to wonder how carefully they do those repairs. You get what you pay for, maybe?

I am trying to make better use of newfound time right after work when I work at home (and also on my lunch break). When I work from home, I am fine heading out after work since I've been sitting inside all day at my desk. I'm also not feeling tired or stressed from the usual commute.

So today on my lunch half hour I'll run to the local cobbler to see if I can get some shoes repaired, and right after work at 5 I think I may head for BJs. These are things that would normally have to wait until the weekend, so by doing them midweek I not only avoid the weekend crowds but free up that precious weekend time for more pleasant activities.

I am still dreadfully itchy from my poison ivy.

Just a month after getting a brand new driveway, half paved and half pavers, I noticed GRASS growing up through the asphalt near the bottom of the drive by the road!!!

This can't be right. The contract said he was to lay down 2 and 3/4 of an inch of asphalt but it sure doesn't look that deep to me.

I was wondering how difficult it was going to be to get the contractor back out here after I paid him. I procrastinated a little, but called him tonight and left a message. Five minutes later, he called me back and we talked. He said he'll be up in a few days to look at it and said they'd take care of it. He asked if i could take some pictures and send them, which I've already done.

It's not a lot of grass, but in 2 areas I see a half dozen or so blades coming up. GEEZZ! If the grass can come up that easily, I really worry about the pachysandra on one side of the driveway, which can grow through anything.

In my mail tonight was yet another Medicare statement regarding of my mother's medical bills. I am so sick of getting these statements. They are not the bills themselves since that would come from whatever creditor was involved, but i can never make heads or tails of these bills or when they will end becus of overlapping time periods. This latest bill says I "may" owe another $333 or so to 2 different medical supply companies. It's possible I don't. Maybe I should call them tomorrow but I kind of feel like just sticking my head into the sand. It just stresses me out and I can't wait for this process to be over. To be getting bills from November and December on May 2 is a little ridiculous.

Oh, one more thing to moan about: my low air pressure tire indicator came on AGAIN this a.m. on my way into work. It's been an ongoing problem for at least 6 months. Each time I go to Town Fair Tire where they advertise free tire repairs. Well, i guess you get what you pay for becus I've had the car over there at LEAST 5 times for this same problem, same tire. The last time was 2 weeks ago and they told me they found a tiny piece of metal in the tire. Before that, they said it was a nail. Before that, they said it was the valve stem leaking air. Strange that all that should happen to this one tire. Maybe they patched it and the patch didn't hold and they're embarrassed to admit it.

On my way home i stopped at a nearby Sunoco station and he checked the tire and said it was the valve stem leaking but couldn't replace it becus the tire has an electronic sensor on it and he wasn't sure if owner had the right one for my car or would have to order it. So I have to call tomorrow morning and try to get it taken care of on my work-at-home day.

The piece I picked up yesterday, my latest framing, is the abstract birdcage at right.



I had the other 2 at left framed previously. All told, I believe I've paid to frame 6 large pieces like these.

I got another good idea for selling some of the larger pieces. Someone at the arts center yesterday told me about a woman in my situation; she had inherited a lot of art from one of her parents. She was able to sell quite a bit of it by approaching a local realtor and hanging the art in their offices, for sale. I am not sure having colorful art to adorm their office walls is enough motivation in itself without having to offer them a commission or not. I wouldn't really be interested in another obvious thought, letting realtors put my art in various open houses. Becus the more you cart it around, the more your risk dinging, denting, or dirtying it and once that happens, you can't sell it. So I'd rather hang it in one spot.

I guess to sweeten the pot for the realtors, I could offer 10% of the sale price. Unless they know the art business, they wouldn't know the usual commission for a gallery sale is 3o% or 40%. So maybe 10% would seem reasonable, considering they're not doing anything to market it except give it the exposure to buyers that I don't have.

Rainy and rather raw weather has forced me indoors today. So instead of tackling some much needed yard work, I....

1. Made a small pot of pea/lentil soup. Usually I cook up enough to feed an army but today my goal was to use up small amounts of split peas and lentils sitting in the cabinet. I have about a ton of various rices, wheat berries, etc. sitting week after week in the cabinet; some was from my mother's kitchen. I hate to throw food away and dry goods tend to last a pretty long time, so I'm making a concerted effort to really start using more of it.

2. Last week I bought a beautiful eggplant at Whole Foods and am only getting around to cooking it today. It doesn't do much good to buy great produce if you wait til it's looking worn around the edges to use it. I'm making baba ganousch.

3. The hummingbird(s) is back! Refreshed the sugar water today.

So T. Rowe Price offers a free analysis of your overall investments/savings and recommendations for whatever your long-term goals may be, such as retirement.

The service is free as long as you have at least $100,000 invested with them. The person who works with you and prepares the report is a CFP.

You begin by filling out a fairly comprehensive questionnaire that includes what you'd like to know and listing all your current assets/investments and in my case, when I'd like to retire and how much annual income I'd like and so on.

After that, I scheduled a time to talk on the phone with the CFP; it was about a 40-minute phone call during which time she clarified and confirmed various things and we discussed my personal issues, concerns and points of interest. These included, can I retire BEFORE age 60? Will I enjoy the $40 to $43K annual income I desire? Will I outlast my savings?

Yesterday I received the emailed 20-page report which summarizes my original inputting information as well as their specific recommendations, not only in terms of the overall makeup of my portfolio but also recommended T. Rowe Funds to consider. Becus of course they would like it if this resulted in my investing more with them, even though they're aware much more of my money is now with Vanguard.

They also ran the Monte Carlo simulations to see how likely my money would last til the end (age 95 is the number I used) given different market scenarios.

But that's not all. They will schedule a 2nd meeting with me to discuss the report and respond to any questions I have, and to help me implement the plan if that's what I want.

And with my consent, they will check in with me on an annual basis after this, to see if there are any material changes in my circumstances, and so on.

I have to say, I'm impressed to have these resources at my disposal, at no charge at all. Guilt may cause me to invest more with them, even though I really do want to keep as much as possible with Vanguard, because they have lower fees. I also am very partial to index funds whereas T. Rowe would like me to invest more with actively managed portfolios. They're not being pushy at all.

I am very tired right now but I took a quick read of the report tonight. Based on my risk tolerance, among other things, they're recommending my asset allocation remain roughly 60% stocks/40% bonds/cash for the next 3 years, until retirement. I guess, too, this speaks to my current portfolio not being bad at all since they are not recommending wholesale changes. She commented that she thought it was very well-diversified. In retirement, they're recommending a 50/50 split.

They are suggesting some tinkering/tweaking of my current portfolios in terms of weighting of specific funds and one thing i remember her telling me on the phone is that they would not recommend sector funds. Meaning, I'm now invested in their Health Science Fund and a Vanguard REIT fund, both of which focus on a single sector. They feel these are too volatile given my statement that a 15 or 20% correction now, at this point so close to retirement, would concern me "very much."

I'm not opposed to closing those both out, though I do remember one reason i got the REIT fund is that I no longer have a mortgage, so it represented some real estate diversification that I don't otherwise have exposure to.

Anyway, I do have to study this in more details and I believe some of their numbers were off. I'd also like to get them info on my company match each year. Not sure if it's really that significant given I'll only have that for another 3 years if things go my way.

I will share more tomorrow.

In other news, Patient Saver IS crazy itchy itchy itchy. I have a bad case of poison ivy which i got last week. I'm hopeful that "any day now," i should turn the corner and start to see an improvement. The worst spot is on the inside of my left wrist. I have some also near my right elbow and on my stomach.

The itchiness definitely waxes and wanes. I've been trying to wear short-sleeves shirts when I can because even the slightest brushing up against it as a sleeve would makes it really scratchy. It's usually around this time i go see the doctor for prednisone, but if I can avoid nasty drugs, I would prefer that.

The part on my left wrist looks downright nasty. I was planning on going to a reception at the arts group today and i didn't want to repulse anyone with it, so I did wear a long-sleeved shirt to cover it up.

I spent a few hours at the arts place and spoke to a number of very nice little old ladies. They are all so friendly and sweet and kind. I decided to purchase 2 small framed photographs, one of just 2 sales today. I thought they were really quite reasonable, at $40 each, and then I learned that if purchased together, they were just $60 for the pair. They were photos of shorebirds on the beach with frames that looked "beachy." God knows where these will go, with all my mother's art, but I love birds and I wanted to support the arts.

They all seemed quite pleased, although the woman who took those photos wasn't there. She will get a phone call. I won't be able to take the photos home til the end of the show, when I pick up my mother's work. I had someone take my picture with my mother's work there and someone had prepared a half dozen tabletop tent cards describing my mother and her work. Plus I had her bio and framed photo there and 2 of her larger pieces.

I had a good talk with someone from the non-profit healthcare center here in town. She and the doctor who founded this place are going to come to my home to see what art I'd like to donate.

I went through about 2 dozen rolled up wall tapestries I hadn't even looked at yet and decided I'd like to donate most of them. They just aren't my style, take up a lot of space and I already have enough to sell with the framed and matted pieces.

I'm also thinking of donating up to another 10 paintings done in what i would call a primitive style depicting small village scenes based on photos my mother took in Morocco and Mexico. The Moroccan ones are interesting, because in some cases I have both the original framed photo of a particular scene as well as the painting, so there's added interest in seeing how the artist interpreted a particular scene.

At the same time, the Moroccan stuff looks very Middle Eastern; my mother was fascinated by the architecture and incorporated a lot of it in some of her work, but we're at a time now when Middle Eastern stuff might not be so appealing to a lot of people becus terrorism has given that part of the world a bad name.

This is all much more than I originally envisioned donating but I think I would feel mostly relieved to move it out of here. It would be going to a very good cause, one I believe in strongly (free healthcare for all) and a highly respected group in town. Plus it would stay in my town, which, after 20 years here, feels important to me.

I would just want to take a few photos of the installed art. Maybe with this size donation we could get a small plaque with my mother's name on it. I would really like that. So would she. My goal is to keep her name alive, and her art still enjoyed by others. This is what drives me.

They are moving into a 5,000 square foot space they'll own this October. So I don't know if they'd wait to put it all up til then or use it where they are now, a smaller rented space.

All that being said, we've had these discussions without them having seen my mother's art yet. To be perfectly up front, I am keeping what I feel are the best pieces, as well as those pieces i think are most sellable. The ones I'm donating I don't care for much and I don't know that they're as sellable either. I hope when they come to see it they don't agree with me or feel I'm trying to donate the least desirable stuff.

And art is so subjective...what if they don't personally like it? Well, regardless of their personal taste in art, my mother's art is very, very colorful, and it would certainly liven up the usual sterile doctors' offices.

My portfolio did pretty well for the month of April, thanks to the stock market. It was up $22,000.

The 1st woman showed up tonight after work with her mother to pick up some blue milkweed, a very pretty perennial that grows about waist high and looks like an ornamental grass.They spent $42 on the clumps which I was selling for $9 and $12, so I was quite happy they bought so much. Quite honestly, the larger $12 clump could be easily divided into 4 smaller clumps, so I think my prices are pretty reasonable.

It's really nice to be able to earn a little pocket money from something growing in the garden that was "in the way" and would have otherwise been tossed in the woods. Kind of at the last minute I decided what the heck, I've sold this before a few years ago, why not do it again? It makes me feel less dependent on my salaried job, which of course I am, but it still feels good to come up with creative ways to earn a buck.

I have someone else coming over tomorrow and a third person as well, although she seemed less definite.

I have my first case of poison ivy for the season. It's on the inside of my wrist. Ironically, I WAS wearing gardening gloves but the poison ivy rash is immediately BELOW where the glove ended. It's a nasty-looking welt but so far I don't think it's spread.

Just now, someone on Facebook said they wanted 3 yarn cones I've had posted for a while. Waiting for her to ok the ship cost. I recently gave away 3 boxes stuffed with assorted odds and ends yarns that i was having trouble selling becus it was just a single skein in 1 color, for instance, or one small cone. It's all been sitting around here long enough (!), I'd say, since last June, so just about 11 months!! I have just one small table of yarns left, and these are priced at dirt cheap prices. Just to move them out of here. At some point, I'll likely donate any of these that are still left, too.

I've found that one effective way to get people to buy more is to figure out the shipping cost when someone indicates they want something, and then I can often point out that there's room in the box to fit more yarn cones. I've learned from prior experience that adding 1 or 2 additional cones often does not increase the shipping at all, so the buyer is essentially getting those with free shipping. People have thanked me for pointing this out. So it's a win/win!

When I dropped off art for my mother's tribute show last night, one of the women on the board asked me if I'd want to present the Best in Show award, but I quickly declined since as you may recall, i don't like speaking in front of a crowd. Although I think I could handle saying like 5 words. She accepted that, but she also mentioned they would say a few words about my mother, and recognize me as her daughter, at the start of the ceremony. So I have been shanghaied into going to the opening reception this Saturday, which I hadn't really planned on doing. Oh, what the heck, I may enjoy it. They told me the person who last year's show was dedicated to (i think also the child(ren) of someone who died) sold their work at the show, even though it technically wasn't part of the show, becus only live people can take part. I brought 2 large pieces of my mother's, and one woman on the board commented that the prices I had on them, $400 each, was very reasonable, which confirmed what I felt was true. But again, I need to start moving some pieces.

I think I will bring my camera and ask someone to take my picture standing in front of my mother's work. The women there are so kind. I will get a better idea of the cross-section and makeup of this group at their Saturday function.

I also had a meaningful conversation with a woman when I got a postcard in the mail from a arts/cultural center in Pearl River, NY. It was about an art opening, and I knew my mother had exhibited there before, but I figured since I could safely say I wouldn't want to schlep art that far (an hour away, and it would mean 2 trips, 1 to drop off and 1 to pick up), I decided to call the phone number to get my mother (me) off their mail list, as I have done for countless other types of unwanted mail.

As it turned out, the woman who ran the gallery answered the phone and she knew my mother very well. She knew my mother when she was still married to husband #3, and that's going back many years. She also was the one, she told me, who introduced my mother to a well-known sculptor, now deceased, who collaborated with my mother when she wove a silk tapestry for the Chapel at West Point. It was one of the high points of her career. I am in possession of some correspondence she had with the sculptor, along with a very nice thank you note on West Point stationery.

Anyway, she was saddened to learn of my mom's passing. I knew there would be people close to my mother whom I wouldn't necessarily know about by looking at her phone directories. The woman said she also does a lot of exhibits at hospitals and healthcare centers and that Pearl River is only her base and that she travels a lot. So even though I'm not up for "schlepping," we did agree that when I had time I would email her some jpg photos of my mother's work that I'd be up for selling. And I'll see what, if anything, comes of it.

Coincidentally, she said she and her husband were driving from Vermont that very day, where I guess they live, down to Manhattan, to meet the sculptor's widow for dinner, who must have met my mother at the time of their collaboration. They said they would mention my mother to her.

And the week after next, I have an appointment with the local florist in town, who also had a very nice gift shop. I will bring representative pieces of some of my mother's styles/genres but they have very limited wall space so it has to be "small."

So each place has their own requirements and I am trying to be thoughtful about which pieces to offer where. I still haven't heard back from the medical facility where I'd like to donate a few pieces. Maybe tomorrow, my next work-at-home day.

It's going to be a very busy day. Tomorrow I also am getting a call from T. Rowe Price. Assuming you have a certain minimum invested with them, they give you a complimentary evaluation of how you're doing after you input all your balances and tell them what you are most concerned with knowing. It'll be a 40-minute meeting so I'm curious to hear what they have to say.

i was really looking forward to voting for Bernie today. Unfortunately, when I showed up at the polling place, they informed me I was "Undeclared/independent." I thought I changed over to Democratic years ago, but I guess not. DARN IT. I have been very independent all my life, but let's be real -- I've never voted Republican, so why not just register Democratic so I can at least vote in primaries.

I am back to selling divided perennials from my gardens, not because I have to, as I did around 2010, 2011 and 2012, when I was underemployed, but only because I wanted to dig up two large overgrown clumps of blue milkweed and after planting it in 4 different spots around the perimeter of the yard, still hated to toss any away.

As before, there were plenty of people expressing interest in my blue milkweed! It's different, people aren't familiar with it, and yet they should be, because it's deer-resistant, attractive and looks similar to an ornamental grass with pretty blue star cluster flowers in the spring. I have people scheduled to come over today, tomorrow and Thursday. Very cool.

Right after work I'm off to Arts Association to drop off 2 large pieces of mom's art for the spring juried show which will be dedicated to my mom's memory. In addition to the 2 pieces, I've created 2 8.5 x 11 desktop frames, one with her bio and one with her photo and a short quote by her on her art running along the right column. It all looks good.

I will wait til after this show is over to tell them I don't want to do the solo show in the fall. It's just too much work and the chances of a sale or sales after just a 1 month exhibit is pretty limited, IMO.

Went walking with a good friend at work yesterday. She was very supportive when I was going through all the stuff with my mother, because her husband had been through the same thing with his mother just 6 months prior. To treat themselves after a few very tough years with the Alzheimers, they took a weeklong trip to some Caribbean islands to a very expensive resort that cost them about $7,500 for 3 people. It was a heavily discounted packaged. She raved about the resort, the trip and entire experience. Wow. I could probably tour western Europe for 2 months for that price! But they can afford it; she and her husband both make good money.

Technically, I believe Earth Day was yesterday, but many towns are celebrating today.

There's so much you can do to keep the planet we live on healthy. How many of these are you doing? This list is oriented toward other homeowners; I am sure if you rent you could come up with your own lists just as easily.

1. Pick up litter. Each year my town has Lose the Litter day where volunteers fan out across town and pick up litter on their own streets or on assigned streets. Organizers hide special gold soda cans with free movie or restaurant tickets hidden inside.

Litter is a blight and shows disrespect. As a vegan, I believe my body is a temple; in the same way, I feel the Earth is our home and should be treated with respect.

I've picked up litter for years, tho not always during the town-sponsored Lose the Litter days. I must admit to getting out of the habit in recent years, but i do still pick up things I think could hurt wildlife, such as broken glass or deflated balloons that can be mistaken for worms by birds.

2. Recycle. When I stop to think about all we recycle these days, it's a lot. But so much more needs to be done. Debris floating around in the ocean and choking marine life is in itself a terrible thing.

In my town, I recycle cardboard, clean, dry paper packaging, copy paper, newspapers, magazines, junk mail, plastic food containers, metal food containers, glass, plastic garden nursery pots, coat hangers, kitchen "organics," meaning food waste, clothing (via GoodWill) and shoes/sneakers, when I learn of a drive going on, household hazardous wastes. My town also recycles mattresses, used motor oil and large bulky metals like refrigerators.

IMO there's an urgent need to find a way to recycle Styrofoam and soft plastic bags.

3. Drive an energy-efficient car. I think I'm on my 5th Honda now; the next one will be a Prius. If you're lucky enough to live in a urban area where you don't need a personal car, even better. Here in suburban Connecticut, mass transit is sorely lacking.

Low gas prices are definitely not here to stay. Even though they're low now, I still try to consolidate trips whenever possible.

4. Here's a controversial one: Consider having just one child. Let's face it, the Earth is over-populated. If you consider how many resources it takes to raise just one individual, and how many resources that one individual will consume in their lifetime, just think how much impact choosing to have one child instead of 2 or 3 could have on the planet.

5. If you can afford the upfront costs, which have dropped considerably, put solar panels on your roof.

6. Make sure you have adequate insulation, especially in the roof, where most heat escapes.

7. Use a timer for your lighting, furnace and hot water heater, none of which need to be on 24/7.

8. Consider leaving a portion of your assets to worthy environmental groups in your will, and donate during your lifetime.

9. Use electric or cordless outdoor landscaping equipment. These days, battery or electric lawnmowers, trimmers, edges and blowers are readily available. Who wants to mess with dirty, noisy gas-powered equipment and have to store flammable liquids in their garage? The neighbors will thank you each weekend when they get to enjoy their outdoor barbecue without the roar of your mower in their ears.

10. If you have children, spend quality outdoor time with them so they come to love the solitude of a walk in the woods, understand the wonder that comes from watching a dragonfly flit above a meadow or a box turtle plunk into a pond. The more time kids spend glued to their iphones, ipads or iwhatnots, the less they'll connect with nature, and the less inclined they'll be to protect it.

I'm so excited to have found this there:



A Japanese lantern! I saw a new one like mine on Amazon for $141,



though it appears mine is missing the roof. It also has one broken leg, which I also was able to retrieve from the concrete/masonry waste pile at the dump. Too bad I didn't have the roof. But it still has a very distinct Buddhist temple-like look to it, which I like.

It was quite heavy but I managed to haul it into the trunk of my Honda. You never know what you'll find in the masonry rubble pile! Once I found some perfectly good, unbroken terra cotta pots, including one that was quite nice with a weave design, which I still have. Another time I found a few dozen Belgian blocks, which I used to line some perennial beds. I'll have to check there more often!

As far as this lantern goes, without the roof, there's a round hole where I can put a plant in. And believe it or not, the lantern stands fine without the 4th leg, so if I wanted to just turn it so the leg was facing into some shrubbery, you wouldn't even notice it missing.

I am wondering if there's a way to repair broken concrete stuff?

Yeah, so The Human is fond of saying she is "a writer's writer." Meaning, she has a passion for what she does and she was born to do it.

Snort.

Where does she come up with this stuff?

To which I say, Hey, lady. If you're a writer's writer, I'm a cat's cat. Hear me roar. I am Cat. Forever wild and free.

It makes me chuckle when I think about how the only place "safe" for The Human to pet me is on the top of my head or back of the shoulders.



Occasionally, she can scratch my ears.


Anywhere else, and those human fingers are fair game.

She just doesn't learn. She says my giant paws with the hair growing between my delectable Maine Coon toes is just too hard to resist.



Unwisely, she tries to touch them. This triggers my bite reflex, but somehow the years of domesticity have softened the 3,700 pounds-per-square-inch strength of my jaws, so I will lunge for her paw, clamp down on her tasty little finger in my mouth, then immediately lick it a little to let her know she'll get off with just a warning...this time. She still hasn't taken the hint though. Slow learner.

Allow me to properly introduce myself.

My full name is Luther Hoover Patient Saver. I was named Luther partly for the German theologian who began the Protestant Reformation, and also partly because if you say "Luther" very fast it sounds like Lucifer, the devil, and umm, that sounds like me.

As for my middle name, I was NOT named for our 31st president, as you might think, but for the venerable vacuum cleaner that, like me, sucks up everything left on the floor. Stringies, rubber bands, giant wandering ants, bits of strangely alluring dust and captivating, captured flies are just a few of my favorite things.

I am daring and dashing when it comes to anything food-related. The human says I'm "food-oriented." I don't know about that, but I can tell you nothing stands between me and FOOD.

Like, every night, we get our after-dinner snack. When The Human heads upstairs for the evening, I know the first thing she'll do is head into the bedroom to draw down the blinds. I like to race joyfully into the room ahead of her (practically tripping her in the process and often eliciting a loud shouting of my name), so I can leap atop my giant cardboard cat scratcher. This will put me about 12 inches higher and 12 inches closer to the aforementioned snacks when they fall from her paws onto the floor. One needs to be prepared.

So last night at the all-important Snack Time (something I've petitioned Obama about...you know, declaring a national Snack Day) The Human put a few snacks in front of me on the scratching post and a few in front of my bro, Waldo, who was lying on the bed.

I wolfed mine down in .45 of a second. Surprisingly, Waldo didn't touch his. What can I say, sometimes he's in the mood, sometimes he's not. I jumped on the bed and Waldo, who's such a push-over, allowed audacious me to gobble up HIS snacks from right between his paws, with nary a protest.

Wow. He's so mellow. It's hilarious.

Like me, Waldo can only be petted very carefully. But not because The Human could lose a finger from him like she could from me. It's because he's still so gosh darn shy. As long as The Human doesn't move too fast or try to scoop him up in an embrace, he's good. As he tells me all the time, he's a lover, not a fighter.

I guess that's why we get along so well. Cus I'm the alpha, and he's not. It works for us.

Well, it's 5 a.m. and I need to fit in another cat nap before daybreak. hope you enjoyed these little insights into the workings of the feline mind.

Up Next: Me, the Escape Artist

I decided to work at home today because I think I have a cold. It's either that or the allergies I mentioned yesterday. I'm really not sure becus if it is a cold, it didn't come on like they always do, starting with a sore throat.

I found and hired a new guy to mow my lawn this year, at the same price I paid last year.

I called at least 4 guys who said they didn't travel this far out; i had called them because they ranked high on Angie's List.

If the first guy I reached had gotten here last night when he said he would swing by to look at the lawn, I would have given him the job right then and there, because he is fairly local and matched the price I paid last year. But he was a no-show last night and while I touched base with him this a.m., he didn't say when he would be here so I waited here all day; he didn't show up til tonight.

But by mid-afternoon, I had lost faith he would show up at all, and so I found a guy in my hometown who also matched my price. I decided to go with him because he told me exactly when he would come by and he arrived on time.

They were both very nice but if the 1st guy had that much trouble just getting here, I was wondering if the mowings themselves would be a problem.

I decided to give 4 large boxes of yarn odds and ends to a weaver friend of mine; she came by mid-day to pick them up and we chatted for a while. These are half used cones or small volume skeins that wouldn't be of much use to most people but i thought her weaving groups might be able to play with the yarns all the same. Seemed a shame to throw them out but it was getting harder and harder to sell them, especially since most at this point don't have labels as to fiber. I still have 1 small table of yarns I am selling, and the weaver friend purchased $20 worth. I helped carry the boxes to her car.

I have an electrician coming over Saturday morning for 5 small jobs; i don't know that he'll be able to do them all.

When I was at work Monday, I stopped in at a new French Vietnamese restaurant for something as I was still hungry after having my own tomato/brussel sprout soup.

I got a coconut tapioca and was wondering why it cost so much ($5). Well what a treat it was. It was the large pearl tapioca with something crusty on top and under the tapioca was some gelatinous chia seeds and under that was pineapple chopped up very fine. The whole thing was very delicious, so much so that it inspired me to search for chia seed tapioca recipes. I made a super easy chocolate version. What happens is that the chia seed turns gelatinous when you combine it with a liquid like almond milk, so it works great in any kind of pudding. I made it for tomorrow's breakfast but it may not last that long. (

Tomorrow I have to go over to the local IRS office to verify my identity by filling out a special IRS form, all so they will accept/process my mother's federal tax return. What a pain.

We're expecting a possible frost tonight so I decided to cover up quite a few ground phlox already in bloom, along with tulips and other tender bulbs also in bloom. And I cut myself another bouquet of gorgeous, gigantic daffodils, just so I can enjoy them in the house, becus i couldn't cover all those up.

I started deadheading other spent daffodils.

Wow, 9 pm already..time to watch The Good Wife.

No sooner did I receive a letter in the mail from state of Connecticut acknowledging my payment of $7,000 from my mother's estate did I get another unwelcome surprise in the mail, this time from Medicare.

The document ("This is not a bill") indicated I owed $17,000 to Masonicare for my mother's care. This money would come out of my pocket indirectly, since it would be deducted from my mother's estate.

Needless to say, I was very alarmed but I also knew there were some much smaller doctors' payments owed, according to the Medicare statement, but when I called the doctor's office, they said it was covered.

These Medicare statements are also very confusing in that they often seem to cover overlapping periods of time.

Anyway, I was able to quickly confirm that I don't owe Masonicare anything more than I've already paid (which was a lot)! Really big phew.

Today I got my new TD Bank card. It was very nice that the rep, without being prompted by me, confirmed that after spending $1500 in 3 months I'd get $200. I was glad she did this becus usually I take a Print Screen of the offer in case there are any issues upon redemption, but this time I forgot and for the life of me I could only find $150 offers online. So anyway, it should work out okay. Time to spend.

The strangest thing has happened to me. Yesterday morning at work I realized I had a very itchy right side of my nose; it felt like I was going to sneeze. All day. And since then, I've had a stuffy nose. I had heard you can develop allergies any time during your life, and that was my first guess, because the tree pollen levels are high right now.

But it's also very upsetting becus, while my mother and sister have always had allergies, I never did, and to think I've gone my entire life blissfully allergy-free only to develop them now, in my 50s??

It's kind of depressing because it's not that enjoyable. However, today I'm wondering if I actually just have a cold. I say that only because from yesterday's itchy and occasionally sneezy nose, it's now more stuffy, probably on both sides.

Yet it seems odd to get a cold now, and besides, I always start off with days of just a sore throat, and then it develops from there. This time, it started off with a very itchy nose, just the one side, but now today I am feeling kind of tired/achy.

So which is it? I'm actually not sure. I'm not aware of any other symptoms.

For those of you who might be interested, I thought I would share the link to the little art blog I helped my mother set up while she was alive; she never really got the hang up making posts on her own, but since she's been gone I have been trying to keep up with it occasionally when I have news of an exhibit. Here's the link; I encourage you to "follow" us!
http://paulareneemulti-mediaart.blogspot.com/

One bit of encouraging news...after actually being turned down TWICE by non-profits who weren't interested in donated art (who knew this could be so hard), I connected with one that is interested.

It's a very special kind of place, a healthcare center right here in town, run by a doctor and nurses who volunteer their time to provide free healthcare tho those who could not otherwise afford it on their own. I believe they are moving into larger quarters soon, still in town, so perhaps that is part of the reason they are interested in art!

They haven't actually seen mom's art yet; i just inquired via a phone message. I was reluctant to email jpgs this time around because my photography skills aren't that great and I don't feel my photos really did the art justice. I wasn't really given specific reasons why the 2 other groups weren't interested, and I did feel bad, wondering if they had a personal negative reaction to the particular pieces I'd earmarked.

The woman isn't around this week but hopefully next week we can schedule a time I can come in and show her a few things in person.

I think my mother would love the idea. I know she wanted me to donate some art, but a not-for-profit medical facility is something especially worthy, I think.

I made a bunch of phone calls this morning for someone to mow my lawn this summer and an electrician. There have been some communication problems with the guy who mowed for me last year, and he billed me for a mowing I'm not sure they did. In October, I left him a phone message, sent him an email and wrote on a bill I mailed payment for that I wanted him to stop mowing. The reason being that I like to run my own mower with its mulcher blade on it over the fallen leaves so I don't have to rake. His mowers didn't mulch.

However, his mowers still showed up and luckily I was home and told them they weren't supposed to mow anymore and sent them away. I also remember there being an issue where they kept scalping my lawn, and after pulling up tufts of grass, weeds would grow back in their place. I asked them not to mow so low and they kept doing so...i think there was a language issue as he's Latino.

Finally, i found him through Angie's list, where he offered a 5% discount. I assumed this would be applied all summer long; he didn't say otherwise. About halfway through the summer, he stopped deducting for the 5% and I paid the bills without noticing until toward the end. When I brought it up he said that was for new customers only.

Anyway, he's feeling disgruntled becus he thinks I owe him for one last mowing, and I'm unhappy for the reasons listed above. So I'm hoping to find someone else who will do it for about the same price as it comes out to about $1,000 for the season, which is a lot to spend on lawn mowing.