Party On.

The day after Donna's birthday celebration at the Chart House, Donna and I went to a friends house to celebrate their birthday...oh yeah, Donna's too.

Mick and Gisella went to South America on the mission with us. Actually Gisella is the driving force behind most of the Colombia mission work. We had a wonderful evening talking about missions past and one coming up in August. This mission will take us to Cuzco, Peru.

As much as I would like to polish off my halo, and say this is a totally altruistic move on my part, the truth is Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail have been on my bucket list for awhile now. And hey...if I can do a little good along the way, why not? Mick and Gisella had hiked the trail and had photos to prove it. Donna has already said that she would be taking the train, 1st Class no less. I feel like if I took the train I would be missing out on an adventure of a lifetime. Of course it's easy to feel like that now, I'm sure around day 2 of hiking straight uphill,sleeping outside, not bathing and barely being able to breathe in that impossible altitude, I will be rethinking my need for adventure. Anyone out there want to join me?

The Never Ending Birthday.

Donna celebrated her 50th year on earth November 12th, but because she didn't get back to Maryland until the 17th, the celebration continues. I know I have been guilty of celebrating my birthday for more than one day, so hey, party on!!!

On Tuesday evening "the girls", Donna, Donna's sister Ellen, Kris and I went to the Chart House, so Ellen and Kris could send out birthday wishes. I know I have mentioned before how comfy the atmosphere is in the lounge area of the Chart House, so comfy in fact that we decided to have dinner there as well as cocktails and apps. It is always great to have dinner with friends, but when those friends are also sisters, it just turns the fun meter up a few notches. What better way to end the perfect evening than with "Birthday" lava cake? 4 spoons please.

A Rolling Stone.....

Donna has not stopped since arriving back in Maryland. Saturday after her seminar, she came home, freshened up and then we both headed out to meet her step-sons at Chevy's for dinner.

Her boys are both wonderful young men. The conversation was lively, while steering clear of Jose, Donna's soon to be ex. Peter, the younger of the 2 boys, is living with Jose, so it may not have been as easy as it seemed. Dinner was delish. Most of us had the sizzling fajita plates, mine was portabello and asparagus. Yummy.

The following day when I went to put my jacket on to walk Harper, I could smell the onions from the night before permeated in the fabric of my jeans and jacket. So today I'll be doing laundry while Donna is in her lecture series. Could my life be any more stimulating?

....And How Was You're Day?

Donna signed up for a medical seminar while she is here. It is something she needs to do every 4 years to keep updated on her RN status. So while Donna is headed to Alexandria for her day of lectures, I head to Morgan Gerard's to learn about the 400 different facials you can get.

I get home at 3 and decide to rake the leaves. Donna gets home and tells me she learned how to insert an intravenous line into the bone. Intraosseus.......Can you imagine? Directly into the bone, it can make the difference between life and death. It was fascinating to hear about. In the mean time I'm learning how to make a hair appointment. I guess it beats asking if they would like fries with their meal.

She's Back!!!

My friend Donna, who recently headed south to live, is back in Maryland for an action packed week. She got in late Wednesday night, so after about an hour of catch up and giggles, we said good night and crashed.

On Thursday, while I head to my first day of training at the salon, Donna heads to settle on the sale of her home here in "The Hood". I meet both her and her realtor, who is also a neighbor, for a celebratory dinner at a new Latin restaurant "Paladar". We had a wonderful meal and

caught up on the day's activities.

From dinner, Donna and Jean headed to book club and I headed home. I meet them about 30 minutes later, because there was going to be a belated birthday celebration for Donna. Did someone say cake? Well I have been in a few book clubs and realize that with Donna being back, the first 30 minutes would have been question and answer period for Donna. I probably should not have gone over for about an hour and a half, but knew that was well passed my bedtime. As soon as I get there the talk moves from Donna to the book, which I had not read.

I have been in clubs where the talk of the book is so riveting that it really didn't matter weather you've read the book or not, unfortunately this was not one of them. I was there for maybe 20 minutes, and after the first 3 all I could think of was weather or not I had been there long enough not to seem rude to leave. I lasted maybe 20 minutes before I excused myself reminding Donna to bring home some birthday cake.

Cutting Edge

I went in to get my hair trimmed last Tuesday. It is the longest I've had it for some time. Liza cut layers into it and it looks great. The weight of it being all one length took all the natural curl out of it. Now I can shake it and the curls are all over. Not only did I leave with a great new do, "The Boys" offered me a job. I thought what the heck, I can only watch so much Kelly and Regis. So starting next week I will be working part time at Morgan-Gerard's. I'm looking forward to the new experience and I already told the guys if it becomes too mind numbing, I'm sure it's nothing a facial won't cure. Call for your appointments today.

What's Love Got To Do Wth It?

Do you remember what it's like to fall in love? Weather it's for the first time, or the thousandth time.....everything seems to take on a clearer, more vivid hue. Well since the stars seem to have taken a vow of celibacy in my universe, for the time being anyway, I have made a discovery that changes all that for me. Polarized Sunglasses. I first became aware of the color intensity of my shaded world in Hawaii. The blues of the ocean and sky took on new shades from God's crayon box. Shades that were never in my box of 64. The mountains beyond were a subtle shade of green instead of the mousy brown that was offered sans shades. With the fall foliage well passed it's peak, my sunglasses have offered an extension. I find myself removing the glasses to see what it is that mere mortals must see. So until the "Love Gods" deem me worthy, I am content with my polarized sunglasses, and I don't have to cook for them.

Weekend Scare

Harper gave me a scare last weekend. On Friday she didn't eat her dinner, but I didn't think too much about it because she's ignored her dinner in the past. The next day she passed on both breakfast and dinner. She also had diarrhea since Friday. Okay I figure if she doesn't eat on Sunday, I'll get her to the vet first thing Monday morning. Well she had other ideas.

When Sunday come around, her diarrhea was bloody, and she couldn't keep water down. Off we go to the emergency vet clinic.

I was afraid if I waited until Monday, Dr. Etter would have said,"...if only I had seen her 12 hours ago", I would never have forgiven myself. She had some sorta of virus that ran its course and she is now back in the pink. Oh yeah, Harper's vet bill was everybody's Christmas present. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Lecture Series

A friend of mine bought tickets for the "Baltimore Speaker Series". She has seen a number of interesting people speak, and asked if I would like to join her for Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of "Eat, Love, Pray".

I jumped at the offer. I picked Katie up at Mercy Hospital where she works,and we headed to Little Italy.

I have not been to Little Italy since Rachel's rehearsal dinner, and it has changed so much. Velleggio's is now closed. Can you believe it? After 40 years......anyway.

We had dinner at Amecci's, and dessert at Viccarro's.

Elizabeth Gilbert was delightful. I was a little worried because my attention span is not what it used to be. She had me spellbound from the moment she started. Sometime writers only have success on paper, their speaking skills are not quite as honed. This was not the case with Ms. Gilbert. She basically talked about her childhood, adding the perfect amount of anecdotes along the way. I liked her after reading "Eat, Love, Pray", now I really like her. She related that nothing could have prepared her for the success of the book and movie. She also felt bad that she could not help everyone who has ask for a part of her since the release.

During the question-answer period, she remained posed and answered the questions as best she could. She is my new best friend.

Non Stop Drinking

The bar is barely set up when the first of the guests start to arrive. It's Show-time.

The wedding planner instead of the caterer ordered glasses, and I could already tell there were not going to be enough. We had about 1 million martini up glasses and 60 high ball glasses. Even I can do the math on that. At about 7:00 we started asking guest to save their glass. We had no sink behind the bar or we could have washed them ourselves. Well by 8:00 we were serving gin & tonics in martini up glasses. The way these people were drinking the glass it came in didn't matter. The problem with up glasses is you can maybe get half a drink in it, so we were pouring drinks from 4:30-10:00 non stop. By last call I felt like I had been run over by a train. Now we need to break down the bar, stack all unopened cases for the father of the bride to take home. Uuugghh. Before that begins I decide it is time for an Alleve or 3. When I get out of the car after the 75 minute ride home, my legs don't work. I walk that off, put my 200.00 check and tip money in my pocket and think how much fun tending bar really is. Needless to say, I slept like the dead that night.

Apalachicola Interupted.

I've filled you in on Donna's house and I will get back to describe the "Mayberry-esque" town, but first a little life in Annapolis.

Last week I was given an emergency call by a friend of mine to replace a bartender for a wedding the following weekend. I gave up catering a while ago, when I realized my 50 something year old body was not usually happy with the outcome. Well you know me, a friend in need....

So here I am in a car heading to Fredrick. That's right, Fredrick. Heaven forbid the wedding be in Annapolis, or anywhere closer than a 75 minute drive. Find a happy place, find a happy place.

Now the set-up begins. Racks, and racks, and more racks of glasses have to be moved from point a to b. Cases of beer, wine and liquor also need to be moved. Now this would all be a fairly simple process if a dolly or cart were available. No such luck, just 2- 5o something year old girls. We didn't move quite this many cases, but it certainly felt like it. Oh! did I mention the 50 bags of 40lb. ice?

Projects Galore

During that first week we had so many project going on. The Ace Hardware store now knows Donna on a first name basis. This would have been tedious work for some, but I loved it. I sanded, primed and striped a small dresser that went upstairs in my room. This was also an old piece of mine that Donna bought. It fit perfectly in one of the many nooks in The Tower.

More House

I'm not going to go on and on about the house, but it is so cute I just have to show you the rest

of it. This is Donna's office, it has a french door that leads to the back deck. Lots of sunshine.

Next is Donna's bedroom. It is painted a pale peach and has such a feminine, peaceful feel. I'm

sure only sweet dreams will come from this room.

Now for my room, I called it "The Tower". It was the entire upstairs. Like so many rooms that were built on the second floor as an afterthought, the staircase is built very steeply because of space planning, or lack there of. I was very careful to use the hand rail at all times and to never accend or descend in stocking feet. Harper decided to sleep next to Donna, rather than attempt the climb. Who say's dogs aren't smart?

It had a twin bed because the double that Donna bought would not fit up the stairwell. Actually it wasn't the stairwell, but the turn from living room to said stairwell....anyway, a single was just fine for my stay. I also had my own bathroom, Donna bought the polka dotted bath rug just for me. Love me some polka dots.

All Work and No Play... Yeah, Right.

The first week in Apalachicola was very busy. Boxes, boxes and more boxes, luckily Donna is very organized and her packed boxes made the unpacking very easy. Donna has a great sense of

style which made putting the house together all the more fun.

The living room is right inside the front porch. One of my favorite thing about this house is the 16' ceilings. When the owner added onto the early 1900 style house he stayed true to the existing style, unfortunately these photos don't do the house justice.

We did a little shopping at the local consignment and antique dealers, buying rugs and some odds and ends, and voila, living room fini.

.

The next room was the dining room, or library/den/spare bedroom. Donna is going to have plenty of visitors coming and going, because lets face it, you can never have enough friends in Florida, especially during northern winters. She decided to turn what would normally act as the dining room into another sitting area, using a pull out sleeper sofa as the seat. The sofa was purchased at the local garden center and was the perfect addition, and just in time, company's

on the way.

The kitchen is so cute.Dona bought the bistro set I had in my kitchen, and it could not have worked out better.

A Pink Treehouse

The house Donna is renting is just darling. It has been raised to protect it from flooding and because of that, it sits high up in the trees. This is the view from the front of the house, but the back porch is the real gem.

This is where Donna and I spent every morning drinking coffee, talking about the task du jour and solving all the worlds problems. It is such a comfortable setting. It has a ceiling fan that keeps a breeze going at all times, and you are surrounded by palms. It's hard not to fall completely into the island groove. It truly became my favorite place to be during my stay. Before leaving Donna bought a wrought iron table and 4 chairs, which we sanded, primed and painted, it now acts as the dining room table on the far side of the porch. Aaahh, dining alfresco, is there anything better?

No Excuses

I am always amazed how Sara and Rachel keep their blogs updated. I have been back from Florida now for 3 weeks and have just finished my Hawaii blog. So without further ado I will just give the "Cliff Notes" of my 4 weeks in Apalachicola.

Donna and I headed south around noon on September 5th. I packed Harper,and all the things I didn't want to be without for a month in the Element, and off we went.

We stayed on 95 the entire way, because with Donna driving a 26' Penske we decided the scenic route might be an extravagance we could do without. Penske also put a cruise control on the van that did not allow Donna to go over 70mph. We made it through Virginia, North Carolina and all the "Pedro Sez" billboards, ending up in Florence, SC. Donna checked us all in with her service dog card and the 3 of us called it a day. We got an early start and made it to Apalachicola at 8:00pm the following evening. Donna's friend, Roma, was there waiting with Winslow. We carried in any boxes that were blocking the mattress, then the mattress and called it a night.

The next day Roma, and another friend that Donna had met came over to help with the rest of the van. Donna also had 2 guys that had just landscaped her yard help out. Now we all know how much fun unloading a moving van is, and believe me when I tell you there was not an open space in this van. I am just very grateful that Donna is the kind of person that meets people, becomes friends with them, and they offer to help with a mission like that.

Reaching the Summit.

This was just one portion of the fabulous view from the summit. The day was picture perfect. The air was clean and the sky was blue. We made it to the top, but we had to climb 8 more steps to be at the highest point. I didn't come this far not to make it to the tippy-top. Now we are at the highest point. Life is Good.

Kris and I also did the climb in under an hour and I am convinced if we didn't stop for our Asian photo shoot, and all the other photo ops we could have done it under 30 minutes.

Baby Steps

From the trail head to the summit of Diamond Head Crater it is only 0.8 miles one way, and the climb is 560 feet. The switchback portion was easy and then come the steps. There are 3 separate sets of steps. When we get to the first set I just sorta groan then head up, but not

before I ask everyone to turn around and smile. This climb was 74 concrete steps.

The next set of steps came very soon after the first set. This set was 99 steep steps. My groan was much louder than the first time, but up we go. Now comes the spiral staircase, 52 metal steps. Spiral Stairs are fine when people are just going one way, but when they are coming down while you are going up it gets a little tricky. Oh! did I mention, we are up really high at this point. Getting a shot of this stairwell while it was empty was no easy feat. I am still trying to imagine all this with Riley and Hadley.

Speaking of Diamonds

It is our last day in Oahu, and since Trey is walking wounded, Rachel has offered to take us to Diamond Head for our trek to the top. On Kris's last visit she tackled Koko, and after seeing that climb I was glad that we were doing Diamond Head. Once we got to the parking lot it was full, so Rachel decided to drop us off and take the girls for a ride. I told her to give us about 2 hours. Walking through the parking lot there were 5 empty handicapped spaces. Now I am all for the Disabilities Act, but come on this is Diamond Head, 5 spaces seemed a little excessive.

Kris and I start the climb and passed a couple, I asked how long it took them, and the guy said, " We did it in an hour, but we were really moving". Kris and I just smiled and continued on.

Now I have been on some climbs before where I have to grab my knees every few minutes to catch my breath. This was not one of those climbs. The switchbacks made the trek fairly level with a slight incline.

This photo is taken at the 1/2 way point. We found some Asian girls to take our photo.

This was the first of about 20. This with Kris and I. Then with Kris and I and 1 of the girls, then with Kris and I and the 2nd girl, Kris and I with the 3rd girl, Kris and I with all 3. Dear Baby Jesus, you would have thought we were world renowned climbers and having a photo taken with us would cement their popularity back home. I am not counting this as my 15 minutes of fame.

Pearl Girl

They say diamonds are a girls best friend, but give me pearls any day. I am a firm believer that pearls work with anything, from the little black dress to jeans and a tee shirt.

After finishing up the funniest day, Rachel promised me we would stop at "Pearl Paradise". Needless to say I was in heaven. I opted for a simple single pearl on a gold chain.

After purchasing the one pearl, the clerk makes you go through a ritual for good luck. You hit a gong 3 times, and then shout Aloha. I gave Riley the mallet to hit the gong. 1, 2, 3, Aloha, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... Riley was having a ball, and I can only assume I am going to have the best luck ever with this pearl. Oh.... and the laughter continued with Riley joining in.

Then you choose an oyster and get another pearl. What a sales gimmick. Now I've got this pearl with no setting. You know I'll lose it if I don't get a setting, I choose a crisscross gold band. Kris paid for it and gave it to me as my birthday gift. She already took me to see James Taylor and Carole King. Could there be any better sister in the universe?