Aug 30, 2006

Hurricane Ernesto?

Seems like the reporters have reported everything under the sun. All the possibilities...etc. Well, the so-called Category 3 Hurricane was downgraded to a Tropical Depression. I have never experienced a Hurricane, but I admit was quite curious. Now that it's a just a tropical dep. We'll probably get a lot of wind and rain. Boring!

I'm not complaining. On the otherhand, Anthony found a brand new Bluetooth headset by a bus stop the other day-and sorry to the poor fellow who lost it, but we have been fighting over it all day. We keep connecting our phones to it. I actually hated the way people looked when walking around yaking on their bluetooths as if they were the coolest, but I do admit it is liberating to walk around & talk (with no cord or anything) connected to your cellphone. Kinda looks like Star Trek, except it's on your ear and not pinned to your tight fitting space uniform. But I will make an effort not to look annoying as I'm sitting across from you and smugly chattering away.

Aug 25, 2006

The Disposable Era



I've noticed in the past couple of years, how popular disposable cleaning products are. They range from disposable household wipes, to glass wipes, wood wipes, toilet wipes (for both the bowl and your bootie), dusters, toilet wands, magic erasers...the list goes on and on. I actually like the anti-bacterial wipes and use them on my toilets. I will refrain, however use the disposable toilet wands and dusters because I don't want to spend my entire shopping list trying to find this refill and that. I was looking into getting a Littermaid for my kitties, and what do I see? Disposable containers that you have to buy. It's like, they trap you into buying a kit, and then it's like you have a lifetime membership to their products because you are constantly buying refills. Sigh.

America has also gone antibacterial crazy, and that I realy don't mind so much. But it does make us more susceptible to having more colds because our houses are cleaner. We can't win! I recently got that Clorox multi-surface thing, and I spray it on my counters after cooking. No E. coli for me!

What boggles me, is how did we forget about the environment? We were making great strides to being more environmentally friendly, but with the outburst of these disposable products, we are just counteracting everything good we tried to do! This world is all about money money money. A few years from now, we'll be hearing studies, like if X amount of Americans use Swiffer, then X amount more garbage is in our landfills.

I'm still old school. I use regular Windex and Pledge. And I own a feather duster. I still use brushes/sponges. The only thing I really use out of the list of disposable cleaning products, is anti-bacterial wipes for surfaces. I used to own a Clorox ready mop. Will I give in to other disposable products in the future? Probably.

All I can say is, look out for those environmental studies in the future!

Aug 22, 2006

Pics From The Weekend....

I did not have my camera with me this weekend - I kept leaving it in the car, what was wrong with me? I always love taking pictures. Nevertheless, there was one in the group who brought her camera and took pictures relentlessly - thank goodness! Thanks for the memories, Raguel!



The guys (from left): Scott, LeBeau, Steven
The ladies (from left): Bodine, Teresa, Ruth & Marie, and Raguel (standing)



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Aug 20, 2006

I’ve Had The Time Of My Life….

Wow. (As Chabba used to say some years back as young kid new to America. What ever happened to that guy?) I just came back from an AWESOME weekend. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. The thing is, I’m staying in a hotel alone…and was starting to feel lonely. So some friends decided to meet up in Orlando and go to Wet & Wild water park. Oh yeah, and this one cool girl booked a 2 bedroom suite at The Enclave for us ladies. Prices came out to $25 per person-Sweet!

I had so much fun at the water park. The day was cloudy – and that made it great because it was nice and breezy. There were less people than usual, so the wait wasn’t too bad. And my favorite ride there was “The Disco.” It was cool because, you go down this black large tube with 3 other buddies, and there are flashing lights and music playing as you go down. And like the other water park in Long Island, it was like a giant toilet bowl in the end. There was another nice ride, where you lay on a mat and go down squiggly tubes on your stomach - that was pretty sweet. At the end of the day, we showered and freshened up and ate dinner at a buffet. We went to one of the people in our group’s friend’s house and then went back to our 2 bedroom suite and crashed. I slept like a rock. They usually have a lot of families rent these suites, so I slept in the room decorated with Sponge Bob! I thought of doing that theme in one of my guest bedrooms - just kidding. The next day (today) we went to a breakfast buffet for $4 per person. Some old fog-I mean people in the group went home early. (I am just kidding, seriously!) But myself and 3 others went to the mall nearby (Valley voice: Totally awesome, the mall is like, the best thing ever!). It was really fun because it had stores we don’t usually have. I bought incense at this cool bead store called black market minerals. Oh and check this out:

Click here because blogger is giving me photo uploading problems...

We all went nuts for these magnetic necklaces/bracelets. They are made from Hematite and mixed with glass beads and silver accents. They are so beautiful I bought a few to give to my mom & aunts & grandma. They don't require any claps. You can wrap it around your wrist or make funky designs. Highlight of my day.

One of the ladies decided to get a mani/pedi – and I did it with her. It was soooo relaxing. I had the paraffin wax thing, just to try it. And it’s really nice. Wasn’t cheap (like I mentioned in my previous post) but it was pretty darn therapeutic. We ate dinner at Tony Roma’s, and went our separate ways. It was great because when you do these 1 day things where you go to a park and then go home the same day, it doesn’t feel like you were away. I feel refreshed, energized, and most importantly, I feel like I had a real weekend away. Now that I’m pretty confident about driving around in Florida, I will have to duplicate this trip for visitors. And will mix it up with all the cool new people I’m meeting here!

It's a small world, one of the sisters that came with us said she had a sister who lived in Astoria for a short period of time. She wouldn't say the name, because I wouldn't know who she was. Well that wasn't the case! Her sister is Diane Zambrano - and yes, she was in Astoria English briefly! I knew of her from a distance. Small world.

Aug 18, 2006

No Matter Where You Go....


It seems that nobody has manicure/pedicures cheaper than NY. Is it because there are so many nail salons in NY, that they have to be competitive? Sometimes, there is like a nail salon on every other block (on the main avenues at least). Suburbia is wack.

Aug 15, 2006

Exhausted...But Mind Is Wide Awake

Today I was supposed to leave at noon, but it took me six hours to get my act together. So I had a late start on a 4 hour journey. I chose not to stop, but to keep going - it was a race on time, that I ended up losing. My trip was interesting, 2 hours into my drive I felt as if I were in the back woods of Tennessee or something instead of central Florida. I saw fields, cows grazing, I passed mailboxes - and tried to crane my neck to see what houses the paths lead to. I even passed a dude ranch. A DUDE RANCH. Oh, and I saw a sign that read "Panthers Crossing." Wish I got a chance to take a shot of that.

Some friends want to go to "Wet & Wild" this Saturday. It's about 3 hours from them and about 2 hours from where I'm staying. I'm down with it. I recently went to a water park and a had a great time. But I also remember the end of the day when you are tired of walking around half naked...

So I'm in the hotel room right now...Just chillaxing. Back To The Future 2 is on TV...I've seen these movies a hundred times and have no idea why I like it so much. I think its a mixture of things, I was always enraptured by the time travel thing, and Michael J. Fox is endearing. The 3rd one stunk, but in a way it wrapped things up. I still think the Delorean is the coolest thing - even now in 2006. Great Scott!

I have to sleep, omigoodness. I have to wake up early, but my brain is so awake, especially since I am in an unfamiliar place away from home. Sometimes when alone in a hotel room, I sleep with the TV on - just for company.

...I would love to time travel back to the eighties, when I was a little girl. Get an apartment across the street from where I lived, and just watch the activity...

Aug 8, 2006

Move Along


I passed by our old house yesterday and THIS (see pic) is what's left of it! :**(

It made me so sad....I always said I wished the new owner knocked it down because I didn't want anyone living there, but to see it like that was hard. It represented to me, the beginning of my new life...

It's good practice - not to be too attached to houses and possessions - although obviously I wasn't attached to that house because of it's comforts-lol. It was a old piece of crap house, but we had fun in the backyard. I really liked living there....I didn't mind the basement at all. My cats loved it, they were out practically everyday, and it was good because they were pretty much contained back there, although Max jumps roofs. Barbecues were fun to have - outdoor Karaoke & movies were great - it's like we didn't have enough time to enjoy it to it's full potential of summer activities. Oh well. Move along.

Aug 7, 2006

Stones Taught Me To Fly, Love Taught Me To Cry, Life Taught Me To Die....

I'm really enjoying Damien Rice's album - and just found out yesterday that this album has been out for a couple of years. Where have you been all my life? Ha. It's just so sad that we get bombarded with mainstream crap when all this good stuff is hidden underneath pop madness.

As much as I can appreciate a good beat, nothing really touches me deep inside as singer/songwriter's music. You can hear the passion in their voices, the intensity of the guitar as they play... And I'm sorry, I don't see talent in any "Artist" who sings a song that someone else wrote. Basically anyone with voice lessons can hold a decent note.

I had a great time last night...we were entertained with simple things that do not cost anything. Moments like that makes me think about how happy we will be in the future...