Aloha and Mahalo Hawaii

I will let the photo's speak for themselves!

Wisteria What?

Okay, so I dropped my amazing, wonderful (ahem, top of the digital camera hierarchy) camera. It worked for a few more photos after the fall and then it stopped. I am traumatized beyond belief. I am going to take poor precious darling to the camera doctor tomorrow and hope for a cheap fix, but don't count on it. Have you priced the Canon G9?? They are going to charge me an arm and a leg.

So, long story short...I have to resort to my already old pictures. I, due to an amazing lack of imagination and a short attention span, am not particularly fond of blogs without photos, so I will proceed to force feed my readers horribly terrible information and some very average pics. Are you ready? (In proof reading this paragraph I noticed it is grammatically awful, but I am too lazy to fix it)

Ha! We went to California...like 2 weeks ago, and I forced the group to go to Universal Studios. Then if that were not bad enough, I forced them to take the tour of the studio.

Here are poor Christina, Art and Tesha looking at Gabby's house from the Desperate Housewives show. (The show takes place on "Wisteria Lane")

Okay, so have you ever watched the Desperate Housewives?

While I do not record the Housewives, (I choose to record Breaking Bad a totally amazing Emmy Award winning show that is filmed in New Mexico that my sister works on)
I do watch the Housewives occasionally. It is not a "cocinada" (Spanish slang for dirty), like my mother thinks it is. It is a really creative drama that deals with some pretty ridiculous scenarios in a whole new twist. It is narrated by a dead woman for one. And it is loaded with plot twists and delicious foreshadowing. It is really fun to watch if you get the chance. But Breaking Bad is incredible.

Here is a really stupid photo of some Wisteria.

All the flowers on the set were fake but they looked really pretty. You will see Wisteria in tons of Chinese art. It is grown in the Eastern U.S. and is native to China.

So... Baby Arrived

My sixteen year old baby finally arrived in CA. We packed her joyfully off to Sea World. A place we had never taken her. And frankly, a place we will never go again(Except with future grandchildren). It was just a glorified zoo. We were the only people there with just our teen. But we really did have a nice day together.

Here we both are getting ready for the Shamu show.

As you may have read previously, this child is crazy about Barbie and yes, she took one home with her.

This is the next best thing to snorkeling in the Caribbean.

Poor Christina has endured being the baby at home alone for several years now. She has been the only child at many of our vacations together since Jordan and Malaina have such strict school schedules, and couldn't get away. Dave and I realize this is precious time with her and we DO NOT take it for granted. She is ours for just two more years of school; I know she will want to fly the coop shortly after graduation. Sigh....

Empty Nest

We had a trip to California planned months ago and as it turned out, Christina would not able to join us for 4 days into the vacation. She got a ride down with her friend Tesha and her friend's dad Art later in the week. We went without her and decided to spend 4 days alone.

This is the classic photo of two people who don't belong.
We are at Knott's Berry Farm without kids. Gray haired and old and painfully alone.
We sucked it up and had loads of fun anyway.

This ride below (which we rode 5 times) went screaming fast and was the best fun of the day.

As you can tell, I was riding solo on this ride. I still had fun and we rode this one about 5 times total too.

Here we are in San Diego,

This is the aircraft carrier Midway (the island). She saw action in both WWII and The Persian Gulf.

I loved the radios. I played with every toggle switch in the joint.

I love toggle switches.

I will post more about our time with Christina on vacay.

Mo Betta in Moab

Malaina and I made a last minute dash to Moab this week. Here we are on the trail with our Mountain Bikes in tow. I have to say, I am certainly glad I have been moderately active with my elliptical machine or I would have died on that trail! What a fabulous day I had. I live in the BEST state for mountain biking and I could kick myself for not getting on the trail more often. My husband gave me a great bike hitch for my birthday this year and I absolutely think it is the best gift he could have ever given me. Take note of this everyone....

....I am going to do Slick Rock (at least the practice run) next year. I start my training now.

Who needs the Grand Canyon when you can have Canyonlands, Utah!
This is the view from Dead Horse Point State Park

What mother couldn't love this photo? My middle child starts her Junior Year at Brigham Young University on Tuesday. I loved spending these last few days with just her in God's country. This is Delicate Arch, located in Arches National Park. Probably Utah's most famous landmark other than the Great Salt Lake. We were the only Americans up at the arch that day. With our weak dollar, the Europeans were having the run of the place. You can see the clouds from a forest fire in the nearby La Sal Mountains that started just that morning by a lightning strike.

We also made a detour to Nine Mile Canyon
a 70 mile stinking dirt road detour! *@#$%& But as you can see it made my child happy.
I really think she should change her major to Archaeology. She won't do it because of all the Chemistry she has already taken for her Micro-Biology Major. This is a very famous Petroglyph Site called The Great Hunt.

This is just a cute lizard I caught on digital. Too bad I cut off his tail, so to speak.

I have a great family. My husband didn't blink an eye, when I said my girl and I were going to get away. Thanks Dave for loving us so much, and keeping watch over Tiny. And thanks to Jordan for doing the dishes for Daddy and Tiny, you are the Alpha when I am away.

Thanks for spending some time with me, while I ooh and ahhh over my fantistic trip to one of Planet Earths most wonderful locations. I think I am a good judge of making that statement too having seen a lot of the earth.

What the Craps!!??!!

Prize goes to the first respondee who can tell me how I paid for this Cole Haan Bag!! My best friends know orange is my favorite color. I was ecstatic when I saw this purse, and I had to have it.

Viva Las Vegas !!

What's a trip to Vegas without lots of food?!!

We went to see Ka -- a Cirque du Soleil branch of fun.

We didn't do too much sight seeing. We were there for the food and the shopping! One of my favorite things to do is people watch. Could that be a form of stalking?

Vegas is fun, but I wouldn't want to live there~~

Yes,We Are Coming Home..Tomorrow

You few readers of my blog are probably thinking...crap, another blog from New York? I am so sick of this woman and her stupid adventures. When is she going to come home to her husband and children? Well, I am coming home after I tell you about the Yankee's/Red Sox game. Oh my gosh, I had so much fun watching the Yankee fans screaming at the Red Sox fans in the stands. There was this one guy who was so loud; he was sitting about 5 rows behind us and I kid you not, he single handedly started about 4 stadium wide cheers! Anyhoo...he started to get so drunk and profane that he was caught in the act throwing things at people in red. The cops came up in two's and took his ass down! Manny Ramirez hit two home run's, and the Yankee fans were furious at their star pitcher the "useless", Mike Mussina, (I quote directly from a Yankee fan, I remain NEUTRAL).

• 200 dollars Yankee tickets(Behind Home Plate!)
• 12 dollars Cracker Jacks
• 5 dollars peanuts
• 8 dollars Subway tickets
• 15 dollars Pizza and pop (1 of each)
• 10 dollars disposable camera (I forgot my fancy camera)
• Last season for Yankee Stadium and a MLB game with my daughter... PRICELESS.

How many people can say they saw the fabulous, amazing, stupendous, ledgendary Patty Lupone in one of the most famous roles ever created for the Broadway stage!? Well, I am an ingnoramous when I say I had no idea that there were so many famous songs from Gypsy! Three famous ones.."Let Me Entertain You", (Ginger Grant sang that on Gilligans Island), "Wherever We Go" (Marcia Brady and Carol Brady sang that on the Brady Bunch) "Everything's Coming up Roses"(made famous by the LOUD Ethyl Merman).

One of my family's favorite movies is "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar", with Patrick Swayze, and Wesley Snipes. Well there are several references in that movie that come from "Gypsy"; Remember when Patrick is dressed up in drag for the first time as Miss Vita Boheme, and he looks in the mirror and says.."Here comes momma!"? Well, straight from Gypsy.

This is The Glad(and slightly indulged) Housewife signing off from The Big Apple, and saying farewell to a fabulous town!

Harlem is Hot!

Here are a few photo's of our recent visit to Harlem. It really is experiencing a Renaissance. I was very uplifted with what I saw. Where once a dilapitaed building lurked, it is now a vital new affordble housing building with business like: M.A.C. Cosmetics, Lane Bryant, Aeropostle, and Starbucks,as flagship stores. To deter the past problems like, Slumlord difficulties, crackhouses etc... If you buy a building in Harlem you must live in it. A few years ago, Brownstone townhouses used to sell for a few thousand dollars, they are now selling for several Hundred Thousand Dollars and crime is at an all time low. Harlem residents are learning skills and receiving higher educations thus bringing vital dollars into the area.

It was great seeing great landmarks like the Apollo Theatre, and the Cotton Club. I was amazed to learn that the second largest religion was Islam in Harlem, next to Southern Baptism as its largest denomination. Did you know that all "Madam Alexander" dolls are all born in Harlem?

Nightlife in New York

The POPE is in town this weekend, hence, the blue lit Empire State Building, this is the view from our hotel window, by the way.

This is my father sacrificing what is left of his hearing, by entertaining Christina's desire to visit as many Hard Rock Cafe's as possible before she dies.We got great tickets for the musical "HAIRSPRAY".
Here is a totally bootlegged photo I took of the dancers. The fat lady in the red is actually George Wendt, the actor from "Cheer's" who played "Norm".

Bronx is Up, Battery Down

Behind the buildingshown here is the Manhattan New York Temple. It is a small building in a city full of giants. Imagine our surprise when we looked up and saw Moroni poking up over the this building here in the foreground.

Here I am at the show in high spirits. The guest was Amy Poelher, from "Baby Mama", with Tina Fey, she is the surrogate mother in the film. Check it out on Friday and see if you can hear me laughing. The lady guitarist Felicia is way prettier in person. The band does play through the breaks. The set looks smaller in person. Letterman is larger than life. You can understand why he is successful.

Christina is scared of the pretty moth; at the Museum of Natural History. It was larger than the span of a man's hand. They had a great butterfly exhibit where you can go into a "tropical climate" (nothing new there right?) and get up close and personal with the butterflies.

Navigating New York

Littly Italy, charming, but no Italians left in this neighborhood.
Lady Liberty in the background. Cute girl in foreground.
On the free fantastic Staten Island Ferry. The skyline is hard to look at without the Twin Towers. I am sure Native New Yorkers still hate to even look out the ferry windows. On a lighter note, I look really fat, cause I am hiding a fanny pack under the coat. (And cause I eat too much)

Top of the Rock. (Rockefeller Center)