A day at the beach

Today was a very good day.

I felt "normal" and 'clear headed" today.

No migraines today. I can not begin to tell you how you appreciate days like this.

The sun was shining and there was a nice gentle wind blowing out from the SE.

I had an easy day work-wise so I decided to take advantage of my free time since this Memorial day weekend I am scheduled chock-o-block full of customers.

I took a ride out to the beach.

I packed up a few snacks, water, my beach chair and a book. The warm sand felt so nice on my feet. I could smell a cook-out wafting over from the camp-ground.

That's another thing I love about the summer is the food.

I thought about what I would bring if I was having a picnic in a park.

I would take a thermos of hot tea with china tea cups. I would have a basket packed with scones and jam, water-cress sandwiches and fresh fruit.

Gernerally, when I go to the beach for the day I would pack peanut butter and fluff sandwiches, baked chips, and watermelon. Do you ever notice how delicious peanut butter and fluff sandwiches taste at the beach? Perhaps a do stop-over at dairy queen for a soft serve with a butterscotch dip for my ride home.

B-B-Q's are the best. Fenway franks, maple beans, grilled corn on the cob, watermelon, home-made potatoe salad, or macaroni salad.

At the public beach there are all different kinds of pizza, fried dough, french fries, soft serve ice cream and salt water taffy.

It is just bloody wonderful!

* the photo above I took sitting out by the Salisbury jetty overlooking Plum Island

May 25th 2011

My Aunt would've been 73 years old today.

I went to visit her bench today to lay flowers on it in rememberance like I do every year on her birthday and on the anniversairy of her passing.

Her memorial bench is located at Moseley Pines overlooking the Merrimack River.

I like 'visiting" her.

It is quiet and serene.

I spend time there reflecting on things that matter.

I thought about those poor souls in Missouri that got whacked with a horrendous tornado. The photos of devastation on the news are jaw dropping. I can not understand why so many horrible acts of nature have been occurring.

I was sitting in the doctor's waiting room for a lyme disease test. There was this young woman there with a little kid waiting there too. She was wearing cap and yet, I could tell she was bald. She had a 'pink ribbon' tattoo on her wrist. I thought to myself, "oh My God. This young mother must have breast cancer".

On the news interviewed a distraught mother pleading for the return of her daughter who had been missing for days. Another segment showed a video clip of a State trooper who had been run over by a hit and run driver.

When I spend time with my "Aunt" up at Moseley Pines I count my blessings. It is so easily to lose track of the important "simple things" in life we tend to take for granted.

The rain had stopped. The leaves on the trees were sprouting green new leaves. The air smelled damp with pine but it was a fresh clean smell. I could hear the faint sound of a dog barking in the distance and a crow cawing. The sun was pulsing in and out causing color changes reflecting over the Merrimack river.

It was going to be a nice day.

* I took this photo sitting on my Aunt's bench

Welcome to the Troll Cathedral part 4

Do you ever have a friend or relative say to you, "oh My God! I saw this and I thought of you...."

It never ceases to crack me up, and amaze me, the things that would prompt those :"I thought of you.." moments.

My long time grade school chum was in Las Vegas last week. She emailed with photos from Vegas stating, "OMG! I thought of you...."

When I opened the email, I cracked up.

She visited the "World Famous Gold & Silver pawn shop" featured on the History Channel called "pawn stars". Low and behold what did she find in one of their locked case displays?!

A troll doll.

And yes, she thought of me.

And of course, I thought it was freakin' hilarious.

She could not believe the troll was being pawned for $70.00! She said, "you just might be a millionaire!"

My oldest troll since 1965-6 "Peter" has seen better days. He's been buried alive a few times, dropped from a fire-escape, colored on and given the prerequisite (bald)hair-cut.

A few years back my Father would be so delighted in himself when he made a "find" from a dollar store. He would say, "oh I thought of you! I have 'special gift" for you!" And pull out this little troll key-chain. I would of course crack up and say, "awesome!" The little troll would hang proudly from the heating knob in my car (and still does)

I have this twisted vision at my funeral of hundreds of these troll dolls lined up on my casket.

What reminds YOUR friends and family of you? :-)

Ambulance ride!

I am one of those people who exercises regularly, takes vitamens, eats healthy and organic and has no vices (no smoking, no drinking and no donuts)

And yet, out of nowhere I get knocked down by some "mystery illness."

And the symptons are always the same. One minute I am fine and the next within seconds, I get the spins, a dull headache, muscle ache, weakness, heart palpations, exhaustion, chills and profuse vomiting. I mean, non-stop puking even when my stomach is completely empty of stuff I still heave so bad my feet lift off the ground.

I woke up wednesday morning feeling like I had a hang-over. I thought to myself, "what the *****?" And then, I could not stop puking. This was one of the worst cases. I tried taking little sips of water and ginger-ale so I would not get dehydrated but up it went. My first thoughts were , "oh shit..I have a bunch of customers scheduled for the day. What am I going to do?.."

Thankfully, I called some of them who were home to cancel. I had one "new" customer who was away so I called my pet sitter to cover for me. Thank God she could do it. There was no way I could get behind the wheel of car. No way.

Matter of fact, I was getting so severely dehydrated and called my husband in tears to come home right away.

He called an ambulance.

This was my first ride in an ambulance.

And it was a good thing too. They hooked me up with a IV right away. I knew if I went to the emergency room by car I would end up sitting in a waiting room for a good 4 hours before anyone treated me. I'd rather be in my warm clean bed dehydrated rather than sitting in a dirty waiting area for hours dehydrated. The guys in the ambulances were attentive and nice.

I was put in a room and got three bags of fluid. That helped quite a bit. After five hours I was chucked out. I didn't even have shoes to walk out outside to my husband's awaiting car. And I never did see a doctor so I still do not know what is wrong with me but at least I was resting in a hospital bed with O2 and fluids which I badly needed for time being.

I'm still dizzy and weak. I can't explain it. My cousin thinks might have lyme disease and my husband thinks I have dengue fever (Bonaire has had a problem with dengue fever). Both symptoms are similar and both have no cures. Both hang around in your blood stream and emerge when your immune system is weak.

Seriously, I am sick of being sick.

Shit!

one year later, on weight watchers

It has been exactly one year since I started my weight watchers journey.

Remarkably, I have not had a donut in a full year.

Sure, I've fell off the wagon indulging in other things but I've managed to stay under 115lbs.

I think the most important thing to keeping weight off is eating.

That's right, eating.

Eating pure, low fat, low sugar, low sodium, and no artificial crap foods.

To achieve this you have to cook your own food.

I broke down and bought Jamie Oliver's cookbook.

The recipes are simple and flavorful. He even has a section in his book on curry dishes. (My favorite!)

I had figured it out on my own (before I ever watched Jamie Oliver's show) that in order to make things taste good you need an array of spices to jazz things up. (Not fat, not sodium, not sugar or artificial ingredients).

It's no easy task if you work long hours because you need to take the time to buy the right ingredients and cook it.

Another thing you got to do is to read labels.

It is no wonder Americans are so F*&^%ing fat.

Everything I pick up in the supermarket has high frutose corn syrup in it. It is in ketchup, soy sauce, whipped cream, cool whip, pastries, soup, weight watchers low calorie snacks, and just about every prepackaged sauce or other-wise mix.

Corn corn CORN!

Corn is what you feed pigs to fatten them up.

I cringe when I hear the excuse that low income people are fat because they can not afford to buy healthy foods.

Are you shitting me?

A box of poptarts cost more than a bag of frozen brocolli so I don't buy that excuse.

My family certainly wasn't rich.

My mother made lots and lots of home-made soup from scratch (to stretch meals out and to utilize left-overs) which is super healthy for you.

I do the same thing.

I think another key thing in losing weight is detoxing your body from what it has been used to craving.

This is the hardest part of trying to lose excess weight is fighting off the intense (sugar)cravings.

As much as I stare at donut shops when I drive-by them I think I would probably vomit if ate them now.

My body no longer craves that kind of sugar anymore. When I am hungry I reach for a bowl of fruit or a box of raisens.

Oh yeah, I'll split a dessert with my husband when we go out.

Do no notice how I said "I'll split a dessert"?

A year ago, if he got anywhere near my dessert I would've growled at him.

Now I'm OK with a just a few bites of dessert just for a treat.This way I am not deprived of an occasional indulgence.

So far I am holding steady.

*the above photo of the large donut is from a donut shop in Round Rock, Texas! OMG!!!

bird room

After coming back from our trip to Barbados I started thinking about on how to improve things for my birds.

I routinely change and repair toys for the birds as well as buying fresh greens from Whole Food market on a regualr basis. Ipurchase "new treats advertised in bird keeping supply catalogs as well as a variety of perches to keep their feet healthy.

This time, I want to improve their living space so it is not so confining, but at the same time safe for them.

Every once in awhile my husband will buy a megabucks lottery ticket. We will fantaze of what we would do if if we ever won. He wants to go back to school and I want a bird room.

Since it is unlikely of us hitting any of the winning numbers ever so we decided to make a bird room working with the limited space we already have.

I've moved out everything out of the dining room that is not essential. The only thing that remains in the dining room is the bird cages and the dining room table with just two chairs. I decided to leave the table and chairs in there because the birds enjoy eating with us. It is a big socialization highlight to 'dine with them". I leave a washable tablecloth on the table as well as a dish of fresh food for them to enjoy while we are eating. Maybe that is why we don't have many guests over. I am guessing people think it's gross when the birds eat with us. Thankfully, my cousin (who has dogs) doesn't mind it. She likes my cooking and she likes the birds.

I set up the playstand by the window so the birds can check out what is going on outside.

Next week, I am having custom screens fitted for the door jams of the dining room so the birds can fly free without getting themselves in trouble in other parts of the house that isn't bird safe.

They will have free range in the dining room.

I am going to install rope perches outside their cages so they can perch.

The next step is to install special full spectrum lighting. I am in the process of researching that now to get the proper lighting and fixtures in order to promote good health.

I need a fixture that will not flicker (T-8) (an electronic ballast not magnetic ) with at least two flourescent full spectrum bulbs with a CRI number greater than 92 with a color temperature of 5000-5800K.

Yes, I am the crazy bird lady your mother warned you about!

Bad Art part 2

When my sister was a little kid she used to like to draw Indians.
The drawings were so bad that they were good.
I can still remember my sister coming home from school proudly holding one of her stick drawing Indian creations to show my mother.
My mother burst out laughing and my poor sister burst out crying.
However, her drawings, alone, got the dubious award as to be hung up on the refrigerator for display.
In college, my sister wrote short stories the same way as she drew.
They were so bad that they were classic. In her, now, infamous college essay short story "the joy of shower curtains" (we still crack up about it) she describes the character crying by writing, "her lacrimal glands spilled out on her epidermis...".
Today, after many years working on her wrtiing style, she has presented herself as a very talented writer. She writes stories similar to Candace Bushnell. (Sex and the City) She knows how to lure you in and make you want to read more and more.
Unfortunately, her Indian drawings never improved.
However.
I told her she could become rich by her infamous Indian drawings. Just take a look at the "life is good" t-shirt popularity. Those drawings are these lame stick figure drawings not unlike my sister's Indian drawings.
When my sister lived in London we decided to visit the Tate Modern museum of art.
There was one 'special presentation" there that we both looked at each and simultaneously said, "oh my God...it's the (grade school) Indian drawing!"
There was this stick figure drawing done with crayon hung up in this world famous museum!
Yes, she still has a chance of making it as a artist.
* I will have to show her this blog.

** the portrait above is from one of the collections from the "museum of bad Art".

Yes, such a museum does exist.

Bad Art

Ok I'll admit it.






I am a serious art snob.






Nothing makes me cringe more than when you visit somebody's house and they have a peice of shit hanging over their fire-place mantle that they pass off as art.






You know what I am talking about.






Some crappy water color "print" in a crappy frame that they bought at TJMaxx masquerading like it's a Winslow knock-off.






What is even worse, is those prefab textured (most likely made in China)"oil paintings" of a landscape or still life.






OMG






I can't stand when people put up "prints" of say, done by"famous artists" to give off the impression that 'they are cultured and sophisticated"






Oh, give me a F*&^%ing break, you pretentious ass.






Gag....






A visitor thought she was doing me a favor by taking down one of my paintings and putting up a "print" she had bought me as a gift.






I stood there in shock.






I was speechless.







I was pissed.



Needless to say I took that print off the wall and put my painting back up.




I like seeing little kids draw and paint.



I would rather see a child's crayon drawing, matted and framed hanging on the wall.






At least that is REAL art, hand-done and from the imagination.






Seriously






Children's art work is real and unpretentious.






Last weekend, I went to a craft/art show up in North Hampton.






I really enjoy seeing what local crafters/artists do.






I bought some home-made soaps, jellies, and maple products. I like to support our local folks.






Not only did I buy consumable products I also bought an exquisite peice of art-work done by a wood working crafter from Connecticut.






It was one of those items that made you stop in your tracks.






It was more money than I would've normally spent on a non-essential item but it was so original and well done. It was a hanging wall sculpture of a variety of different types of parrots. It was done peice by peice in a mosaic of different types of polished wood.






Yes, it had that "wow" factor.






As an artist, I could not resist.






I rarely have art work on my walls that I did not do myself with the exception of a lovely oil painting of a chicken done by sadly, a (now, deceased) Newburyport artist and a collage done by another talented Newburyport artist.






If you are going to present art work in your home splash out at an art show and buy an original peice.






If not, you will be forever condemned as a contributor to the museum of shit art.

the Wild pigeons of Salisbury Beach part 24

I've pretty much concluded that "Craow Dum" is gone.

I haven't seen him for over a month.

It's really quite a shame since he endured the worst winter ever and yet, managed to survive until as of recently. Craow Dum lived for three years residing above the eaves of Sal's pizza. For two of those years, he had an infected foot due to some kind of arcylic threading that wrapped around his foot causing it to swell.

Out of the original crowd I've only seen "JLo", "Galok" and "Busta Move". But even JLo is a new comer as of this year. It is kind of sad not to see the usual "cast of characters" that frequented the beach area. You wonder what happened to them.

Whenever I travel I always check out the general pigeon population that resides in the area.

The pigeons (rock doves) in Barbados were different from the pigeons I've seen. Barbados standard rock doves were larger with longer necks. The most common pigeon-like bird was the eared dove. They hung around the hotel area looking for hand outs. They were actually quite bold similar to our pigeons. They were not classically shy like you would expect of doves.

The little ground dove was shy. They look like eared doves but are darker and smaller.

Another dove/pigeon-like bird that caught my eye was the scaly naped pigeon. It was more of large brown pigeon with an irridescent purple "turtle neck".

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do much bird watching in Barbados because of the crappy weather.

I did, however, spot a flock of five brown throated parakeets pass by as well as cattle egrets and one lesser Antilles hummingbird.

* first photo above is an eared dove (internet photo)

**second photo above is a scaly naped pigeon (internet photo)

I "heart" my cockatiels

The best part of our trip was landing back in Boston and sleeping in our own bed.

Traveling sucks.

I used to love to travel.

Flying on a plane used to be fun and part of the adventure.

Do you remember Eastern airlines-"the wings of man"? It was an exciting and glamourous time to be aboard their airlines.

NOW, flying on a plane is the same as being crammed inside a foul smelly germ infested garbage truck.

It is an 12 hour journey door to door squished on a nasty 12' by 12 ' foam"seat".

Airports and planes reek of farts, bad breath, dirty hair, artificial 'air freshener" chemicals, stale piss and raunchy socks.

It is just disgusting.

Every single time I fly I get sick. I ask myself ,"why am I doing this?"

I was so grateful that I did not schedule any clients the day after I traveled because I predictably got sick. I do not know if it was the combination of meds I was on, lack of fresh air, no blood circulation and the sheer absence of decent food and water.

Regardless, I puked when I got home.

I was terribly home-sick too.

I missed my birds something awful.

I think they missed me too.

When I was laying on the couch, "Eddie" my favorite little cockatiel paced around on my chest. She had her head tilted as if she was trying to listen to my heart beat. She settled down resting her little body on top of my heart. "Button" my little yellow cockatiel did the same thing. I had two cockatiels hunkered down resting on my heart. "Fresh Baby" flew over as well but she settled in on top of my head instead. It was as if they knew I wasn't well and they wanted to comfort me. We all fell asleep on the couch together.

They were happy and content I was home. Life was back to normal.

I guess the best part of traveling is coming home as a wake-up call to all those little things in life that really matter.

I "heart" my cockatiels!

Barbados adventure

Yup

I, thankfully, just got back from the worst "vacation" ever.

I should have known.

I guess every one at one time or another experiences a lampoon vacation.

This was my time.

Two days prior of leaving I was diagnosed with a raging case of the shingles.

The night that we left my birds had "night frights".

Two of the birds ended up with banged up beaks from thrashing around. I never went to bed that night in efforts to calm the birds down.

Of all the seats on the airplane I got stuck next to a father with a crying infant.

And it goes downhill from there.

It poured nonstop the entire week.

I mean, it poured F*&^ing buckets.

Roads were washed out and impassable. Our hotel lobby halls were flooded. I had to put my suitcase and sneakers on chairs so they would not get wet.

Our bed and pillows stunk like a dog rolled in something dead and then rolled around on the bed. I thought at first perhaps the maids forgot to change the bedding but it was actually the bed and pillows themselves. I told my husband to smell the pillow and he almost puked from the stench.

It was bad.

I wasn't sure if I should go diving since I was on all kinds of meds for the shingles but going on a tour or sitting in the sun wasn't happening because of the rain.

We figured, what the hell, we were going to get wet anyways so if the boats were going out why not do a a nice easy shallow dive?

The water had 6 foot swells.

The first dive of the day was a 130 foot depth wreck dive.

You have got to be kidding me.

My husband's dive watch cracked due to the pressure.

Believe it or not, I did OK.

The diving was pretty decent. There were large sea turtles on every dive.

Barbados has lots of wrecks to explore.

The only problem is that the dive masters control everything.

In some ways, that is a good thing. It's a good thing for beginners who need help with their gear and want to follow the dive master. Everyone goes down the same time and everyone comes up the same time.

I personally would prefer to be on my own and take my time poking around the wreck looking around for critters. The entire time during our stay my husband would say "I wish we were in Bonaire..because..."

We managed a total of only eight dives. In Bonaire, we would've done at least 15 dives.

We missed two days of diving because the dive shop got flooded out and was closed.

I suppose it was probably best I didn't dive as much due to the meds I was on. Some of the side effects of the antiviral meds and prednisone was vertigo, sleeplessness and heart palpations.

For six nights I never fell asleep. I was so exhausted but it was like I forgot how to fall asleep.

I also made the mistake of reading a really depressing book ( I did not realize it was going to be such a downer of a book. The book is titled "Of Parrots and People" by Mira Tweti) It was so sad, I wept. I should have brought a funny light trashy novel instead.

Food was a problem too. The choices at the hotel were "chicken or fish". Needless to say, I lost weight on this trip.

One evening when the rain stopped briefly, we decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood to do some bird watching . An elderly resident came up to us and told us to "go down the stairs, now, before it gets dark. Trust me. Go back. Go on. Go down the stairs quick before it gets dark". This was alarming, and we did what he suggested. All I could think of was a scene from the movie ,"I am Legend", where the main character played by Will Smith hides in an armor bunker after the sun goes down to hide from the flesh eating zombies.

Halfway through the "vacation" I got really home-sick. I wanted to leave. Again, we were stuck there because half the roads were flooded out.

On the last day, the skies partially cleared. At least we were able to leave.

Seriously, there is no place like home.