Greetings!

Judie: You continue to amaze me with your technological savvy - posting graphics, changing the fonts, etc! You add a whole new dimension to this post. Hopefully we will hear from Leah soon - she is very busy with her school work and dealing with roommates who are smoking pot in her apartment!

I want you all to know that Morton's Steakhouse was unbelievable - the best meal I have had in a long time. I am still salivating at the memory of this meal. I have described it over and over again to anyone who will listen. My salmon meal was cooked to perfection. I ordered a fancy martini and sipped that while I enjoyed the a few laughs with my friends - very relaxing and enjoyable. A great way to spend a Friday evening - but the restaurant is quite costly - it would probably cost $100/per person on average, but we took advantage of restaurant week with a price of $33.00 and the liquor was expensive.

Bill Mooney is attempting to get my mother's old car (Buick 1994) back on the road. Leah drove this car while she was in high school and it has been languishing in my driveway for 4 years without being driven. We are going to see if we can get this car running again to give to Meredith's daughter, Lauren, who has fallen behind in her car payments - very expensive car payments for a young person - so her car is going to be repossessed this Friday and if we can get the buick running (Bill believes we can) then Lauren can drive the car and just pay for gas and insurance. I will keep my fingers crossed!

Judie - I am glad you had some time off and that the weather was spring-like! Yesterday and today - freezing - more like February weather. This morning it was in the teen's when I left the house.

I am so looking forward to having Friday off from work and I do not have to go to work at Curves on Saturday. Lee is arriving home from LA tomorrow evening and he will join Leah and myself for lunch on Friday at Davio's on Arlington St. in the Back Bay. We will celebrate Lee's birthday as well as mine (his birthday is April 5th). The temperature on Friday is expected to be near 60 degrees - I can hardly wait.

Well enough talking about myself! Oh - the open house at Curves on Saturday was quite successful - Meredith signed up 8 new members which will help build up her business financially. She was quite happy and it has taken some pressure off Meredith.

I hope we hear from Sarah with some new pictures!

Take care.

Early Birthday Greetings For Blog Badgirl!

DEBBIE

DEBBIE

An early Birthday greeting because you are such an awsome blogger. You truly missed your calling to be a cheerleader. The good news is that you and I are actually the same age until July. I admit this out of desperation to feel younger. You truly inspired me to join in this earth- shattering blog. We had a real Spring thaw last week which was also my week off. The temps got to 70 with lots of sun. I enjoyed several long walks in an attempt drop some pounds. We took a trip out of town to Truckee, California, an adorable mountain town that has specialty shops (including Indian turquoise)! Dinner at Outback, and spent lots of time playing with the animals. I am a member of NetFlix. Is anyone else? It is a great way to get DVDs. Congratulations to Leah for finishing her semester with high grades. Leah, are you back in Boston? How was your trip West?

Thinking of your Spring break, Sarah, and know you are enjoying meeting new people and doing new activities.

Talk to you all soon, Love Judie

Welcome Spring!

Thank the Lord - spring is finally here according to the calendar! It is sunny today but still on the chilly side with a northeast wind blowing - about mid 30's. I am meeting a few friends from Curves for dinner this evening. It is restaurant week in Boston (participating restaurants offer special menus at $30.00 - from soup to nuts - excluding alcohol). It is an opportunity to try really fancy, expensive $$$$ restaurants for the low price. I am looking forward to this. We have reservations for 6:30 p.m. at Morton's Steakhouse on the waterfront. Of course, you know that this would not be my first choice since I do not eat steak or beef, but the menu offers a delicious looking fish entree - salmon and my 3 friends will be quite happy with their meat selection. We will order a moderately priced bottle of wine or two and I am sure will share a few laughs. Two of us will be honored for our upcoming birthdays - Carol turns 61 on Sunday, 3/22 and I will be turning 59 in a week or so. Hmmmm, I think I will start planning by 60th bash - perhaps I will go on a cruise or fly to some resort and soak up the sun. This is what I love about spring - dreaming of endless possibilities. Next week, I am taking Friday off from work and Leah and myself are dining out for lunch in the Back Bay area - Davio's and then will do a little shopping around the Newbury St. area, and then I am going to get my hair cut and colored at 6 pm - all in celebration of my upcoming birthday!

For those that were following my car problems - I am happy to report that the car drives like a charm - it is wonderful - I am thrilled. I now need to purchase 4 new tires which will be a little costly, but will do so as soon as all of the pot holes are filled in this great city!

Leah received her mid term grades and she is quite happy with her A's and B's. We just have one more semester to pay for her college education - indeed I am thrilled!

I spoke with Trisha last weekend and she reports that Sarah is on quite a trekk in the outback - she is on a 2 week "spring break" and she is hiking, biking, bussing and probably swimming her way around Australia. Can't wait to hear all about her trip. Trish did confess that she has been reading the blog but has not been brave enough to actually write a post. Come on Trish - jump in!

Judie - thank you for all of your posts - the graphics are beautiful.

We are having an "open house" at Curves tomorrow - trying to sign up a few more members. Meredith has been struggling financially with the business since moving back to Boston - she has been driving up from the Cape every day and working full days at Curves - I am quite proud of her - hopefully things will turn around financially for her. We all certainly know the stress that comes with worrying about every nickel and dime these days.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Debbie, I had to respond before you leave work.

Debbie, I am so glad you survived your many obstacles this week. It brings back so many memories of taking public transportation. I only hope Susan gets better and you get your car back without a huge bill. I can visualize you doing the cha-cha!

Early St. Patricks greetings. Everyone can pretend to be Irish on March 17.

Leah, so impressed by all of your pictures and you and Lee going to Disneyland. I have never been. You get to be a youngster all over again.

Talk to you all soon. Have a great weekend!
Judie

Friday the 13th

Hello everyone! TGIF - that is all I can say! What a tortuous week starting with Monday snow/rain - ugh. Leah will understand my dilemma at work - my co-worker, Susan, had a cold this week and oh my god we were all tortured. It was something like this: uuuuuuuuuhemmmmm, cough, cough, cough, snnniffffllle, snort, pause 10 seconds, repeat the same sounds - THE ENTIRE DAY. Now, at one point, her boss asked her to go home, BUT SHE SAID NO, "I'm fine". I swear, the next time, I will ask to go home and she can cough and snort the whole day without me!!!!

Whew, glad I got that off my chest.

My next dilemma was finding the time and location to get my car fixed. If I brought my car to the auto shop on Canton Ave., I would have to drive up the street at 7:30 a.m. and then walk 1 1/2 miles back to Mattapan Square and then catch a trolley to Ashmont, a train to Andrew Square and then wait for a crosstown bus to take me to the hospital, or walk the 1 1/2 miles to the hospital. Then repeat this on the return trip back to get my car at the end of the day. Instead, I chose to drive to Watertown this morning (1/2 hr. trip) to the auto shop, walk a few steps to the bus stop, take the express bus to Copley (10 minutes) and then I walked from Copley to my hospital on a beautiful, bright, sunny but chilly morning. Thanks for listening to me. Hopefully the damn car won't cost me a million bucks - I swear it would be easier to drive the thing into the Charles River!

I WAS THRILLED to see a post from Leah - love the pictures - it looks fabulous in LA. AND MR. BONARRIGO is hairless on his face - he looks fabulous clean shaven and, well, he just looks fabulous! Thank you Miss Leah for posting the pictures and keeping up with this blog.

I was also thrilled to see Judie's post. Hopefully we will hear from Sarah - maybe over the weekend. I will have to find out why Trish is unable to get onto the blog - she doesn't know what she is missing!

My dance class last Sunday was so much fun - salsa, the cha cha, the tango - I will be going to the class again on Sunday.

Everyone have a wonderful weekend! Hope to hear more details from Sarah!

Saying Goodbye to Los Angeles

Just relaxing and indulging and little bit of exercise and site seeing. Can you see the hollywood sign in the back. Squint really hard! It felt much closer than it photographs!

Look closely and you can see the downtown Los Angeles skyline. How weird right? Just walking through runyan canyon and we come across a house right off the path oh and also a farm?!! on the hillside no less.

Lee hiking down a small closed off path. Haha hiking lee and I...we had a blast.
A sign at the beginning of our hike told me to watch out for rattle snakes and I didn't much care for that!

Me and Los Angeles. or Runyan Canyon rather.

Went to Disneyland yesterday and got in for FREE thanks to a young employee who offered to get us in! What a magical day. My favorite rides are space mountain and of course I love Dumbo, but I am afraid I really am too old to ride on it. So I watch the kids on Dumbo and the tea cups!

MICKEY!

Lee's favorite ride is Mr. Toad's wild ride and of course the indiana jones ride which was awesome! Here is Lee with Mr. Toad!

Spring is coming our way!

SOON THE POLLEN WILL BE TICKLING OUR SINUSES!

Sarah, what are the flowers like in Australia? Do they have palm trees or cactus?

How was your evening at the wine tasting?

Debbie, how was your first dance class? Is it similar to Salsa dancing? Will you get a tall well-dressed member of the opposite sex to tango you around the room? If so, give him my phone number!

Leah, how is your vacation going? Amidst the packing, do some fun tourist stuff.

Andy, Are you out there? Are you online? We need a male voice on this blog to keep us from badmouthing men. What do the girls at your college look like? This is not a loaded question.

Love, Judie

Embrace all peoples of the world!

This could be Debbie at Curves or Sarah at her music class. You go girls! Leah, have a wonderful trip. Our love to Lee from Larry and me. Don't speak to any stray kangaroos! Spring is just around the corner. Judie

Patience is a Virtue

I just knew we were going to hear from Sarah! It is so good to hear from you and see your pictures. It sounds like your experience is wonderful. Aunt Judie will be fascinated to read your entries and see the pictures. We look forward to connecting by way of this blog! It is a gray and dismal day today but at least it is going to warm up. We have about 1/2 foot of snow on the ground and really enough is enough - bring on spring! We turn our clocks ahead tomorrow - definitely a sign of spring! Leah leaves for L.A. later today and I am sure she is looking forward to this vacation. She worked very hard this past week with her library project and had a presentation in class yesterday - I am hoping that this went well for her.

Again, it is so exciting to hear from Sarah!

This weekend I am working at curves on Saturday (what else is new) and on Sunday I will be returning to curves to join a latin dance class that we are offering - I should burn a few calories with this class. The instructor is part of a dance team that was featured in a Mark Anthony (J Lo's other half) video. I'll let you know how this turns out! Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Pictures from Australia

1.) The first picture is of a "Quokka" which is one of the cutest animals I've seen. It looks like a mixture of a rat/kangaroo when it stands up. They are all over Rottnest Island with a population of over 20,000 and it is the easiest place to see these animals. 2.) The second picture is of Parakeet Bay on the northside of Rottnest Island. We went snorkeling there right off shore to the reef and saw tons of fish, crabs, manta rays, etc. (My favorite experience on Rottnest!) 3.) The Mom Orangutan at the zoo, which I swear looked right at me! Not native to Australia, but they are native to the islands of Indonesia which are pretty close to Western Australia. The zoo gives them lots of structure to climb all over and my friends and I were the only people at the exhibit this day.

4. The fourth picture (below here) is of Cottesloe Beach on the Indian Ocean. It is one of the most picture-esque beaches on the West Coast and the level just drops right off. 10 feet in, you are over your head but the water is clear and there is no seaweed. People swim laps really far out at this beach because its pretty calm.

Cool/Scary Fact: There was a white hammerhead shark sighting here about the time we got here (Febuary 7th). They use shark planes and alarms to get everyone out of the water. No one was hurt or anything and there haven't been any sighting since.

5. The Kangaroo! (I cheated and saw this at the zoo, although they are around in the wild.) Next week we're going on a trip all over the Northwest of Australia. We're going up to the Ningaloo Reef, Monkey Mia/ Shark Bay and then inland to much of the Outback so I will hopefully see some of these out in the wild.

Hi Everyone!!

Hello from Australia everyone!
This blog is such a great way to connect, thanks to Leah for setting it up. I think I finally understand it, atleast a little bit. Also, thanks to Leah for posting some of my facebook photos to this blog ( I don't mind, it was a good idea since I mastered facebook before the blog). Anyways, I am living just outside Perth, Western Australia in an international student village with about 900 students (mostly international and those from other states in Australia). In Australia, it is the norm to commute to Uni so those who live on campus are from countries all over the world and places in Australia at least an hour or so from campus. I live with 2 Americans (one from North Carolina and one from Wisconsin) and I also live with an South Australian from Adelaide and a person from the French Island of Reunion. So far things have been great. The weather is beautiful, its exciting to be living in the complete opposite climate, and pretty much every Aussie i've met is exceptionally friendly. My favorite things I've done so far have been going snorkeling and biking around Rottnest Island, taking an Environmental awareness course at Rottnest Island, trying surfing at Trigg Beach in WA, exploring the small port town of Fremantle, WA, and meeting people from all over the United States and world. I take three classes while I am here. Two of them are really interesting so far. I am taking "Black Indigenous Music" which chronicles the history of music of the Native Aboriginal people (thought to be the oldest civilization on earth of at least 60,000 years old.) It is definately one of the most fascinating classes and subjects I have ever learned about. It is all about nature, ancestors and spirituality. My professor is Aboriginal from the North, she has long dread locks, never pays attention to the time, and always tells us about Aboriginal events going on around us. My other class is International Management, in which the professor is extremely knowledgeable and we mainly have been discussing cultural similarities and differences (perfect for an international student studying abroad.) Its funny being an American in Australia. So far they think I have a cool accent, some people even know the Celtics, and sometimes they don't understand me when I talk. Australia is very American in some ways but so foreign in others. It has been a great transition so far and I Love the Aussie culture. It is so laidback and centered around enjoying life. It never stops to amaze me how laidback they are as a people. So much more to write but I don't want to take up all the pages. Today I'm going on an Aboriginal Heritage tour with the program I came on (C.I.E.E.) and tomorrow I'm going on a wine and beer tour of the breweries in the Swan River Valley (East of Perth). I am excited to read all the other posts and will post pictures of what I have seen so far! Love, Sarah

From my house to your houses!

It was so nice to see some new postings and hope to see many more from Trisha, Sarah, & Andy whenever they have time. It looked like you got socked yesterday with Winter weather, and we, as well are getting snow right now, cold, and windy. David Meadow got engaged to Priscilla, his live-in love. Emily going to Chicago this month for more pulmonary tests regarding her newly active fibrosis. Hope your mom is doing better, Debbie. I hope you are getting more support with Meredith back.

Talk to you all soon. Love, Judie

I spy with my little eye...and I hope she doesn't mind

Hi all- Sarah posted some pictures on facebook and I thought that I would share some of them with you. I picked some of my favorite ones and then a couple of her flat. This will hold us over until she is able to post with us. Hopefully this will save her some time too and she can just write to us.

An example of in town in which she probably takes the bus to.

Her Kitchen...

Her Common room...I am guessing

I love this pic!

And this one too!

We miss you Sarah and hope you are having a blast!!

UPDATE FROM LEAH: Midterms are drawing near and I am very busy doing last minute work. I am very much involved in my Library project and hope that it turns out well in the end. I am leaving for LA on Friday to visit Lee. He just decided that he is moving home March 25th instead of May! Which is in like 3 weeks. We are shipping the car and selling all of the furniture. I will help him pack while I am there next week. All he has to do is fly on March 25th. He already has a job lined up at the Baseball Tavern for the red sox season and he'll be able to look for a job at the Plymouth Rock Studios. I hope the east coast is better for him!

Hope all is well with everyone else!

Love, Leah