wildlife + oil = heartbreak

I can hardly stand to watch the oil spill news reports anymore!

My heart BREAKS seeing the images of the helpless wildlife stuggling in the oily goop that's washing up on Gulf shores! Here are just a few (photo credits: AP Photographer Charlie Riedel & Boston.com):

OMG, right?

I feel as helpless as these birds look.

But there is something we can do to help protect against future oil disasters. On June 26, there will be a Hands Across The Sand event held nationwide (and not just in coastal states!). Sal and I will be participating right here on our own Delray Beach! A human chain will be formed along the beach, concerned citizens hand-in-hand ... a metaphorical barrier to more offshore oil drilling. Let's send a message about the importance of clean, renewable energy ... our coastlines and wildlife depend on it!

Here's a scene from the event held back in February along a beach in Florida's panhandle, which is IRONICALLY now cleaning oil from the Gulf spill off its beautiful beaches:

Please consider "joining hands" with me and Sal later this month at a H.A.T.S. event near you!

ahhhh..... that new car smell

After a week of comparison shopping and haggling with dealers, we finally decided on the car we want (actually, it's Sal's car ... but he let me choose the color! ... how sweet, right?).

Yesterday we drove off the lot in a shiny new 2010 Mazda 3 in gorgeous "gunmetal blue"! Loving it so far! We were looking for a good value ... safe, fuel-efficient, with a cool look and some fun features, but not too expen$ive (we're not letting a vehicle mess with our travel budget!). We found all that in the Mazda 3.

My dealbreaker was a sunroof (hey, this is Florida people!) ... no hole in the roof to let in the sunshine, no sale! So that eliminated some models from the get-go. And Sal wanted handsfree Bluetooth/mp3 gadgetry. It made me SO happy to watch him and the salesman get the car programmed ... now Sal can listen to the audiobooks that are on his iPod, right thru his car's Bose 10-speaker sound system, whoa! Sal totally deserves it ... he works so hard, he's such a dedicated professor and researcher. Enjoy sweetheart, and safe travels!

It was sad to say goodbye to Sal's Jetta ... it was with us for 10 years of road trips and memories. Funny how cars are almost like a member of the family, right?

Today Buddy & Aruba want to test drive our new ride. So we're all going to Sonic ... of course! :-)

zoom zoom!

a new month, and a new chapter

Hey there & happy June!

Today is a NEW beginning for me! It's my first day at a NEW job ... working with Sal in his research lab! My contract paperwork was finalized today. I'll be a technician, of sorts, helping him, his PhD students, and his postdoctoral researchers with all sorts of things. You name it!

First order of business will be to review and update the lab's hurricane preparedness plan. Fitting, since today's the official start of hurricane season. Eeek! We Floridians don't even want to consider the possibility of a storm! :-(

Aside from that, there are a whole host of things that I'll be working on, streamlining day-to-day lab operations ... ordering chemicals, budgeting research grant funds, updating Sal's website design (I think it needs more bells & whistles, LOL), coordinating equipment repairs, etc etc etc.

Sal can really use the help, he's swamped, and I'm uniquely qualified to do it. All those years as an engineer and then running a chemical company for a few years thereafter were certainly great prep for this!

Looking forward to working with you, Sal !!! As always, we'll make a great team! :-)

Buddy update

We spent some time at the cancer clinic with Buddy on Saturday. It was time for his remission progress exam, bloodwork, and some other tests. I'm excited to report that everything came back FINE and he's doing well !!! Here he is, minus his whiskers, which have fallen out because of the cancer meds:

His blood cell counts were within the normal range, which is always a GREAT sign when on chemotherapy! But now, since Buddy has been on chemo for a year, his oncologist suggested taking him off to avoid damage to his kidneys, liver, stomach, bone marrow, etc. We discussed with her how we're uncomfortable with him having no protection from cancer cells ... that we'd like to keep him on some form of chemo, all the while monitoring for any organ damage, rather than risk the growth of an inoperable malignant tumor. So Buddy will begin a "less toxic" course of chemo treatment this week, a different drug, one that's better for the long-term.

I tried doing some reading online about this other drug, but kept coming upon stories of how long dogs DON'T survive cancer. I refuse to focus on that, and stopped reading! As sad as the cancer clinic can be, they try to make it a positive environment ... for instance, this plaque was in our exam room:

Overall, Buddy is doing so well and we're incredibly thankful !!! We cherish each day with him !!!

welcome summer!

Ah, a long holiday weekend is upon us (here in the U.S.). Hope you have something fun planned? Aruba's ready for the holiday! (as usual, she wouldn't look at the camera, waaahhh!)

And of course we're all remembering our troops, past and present, on the solemn Memorial Day holiday. Their sacrifices deserve special tribute.

Sal and I have had a long week, so we look forward to some relaxation. But ... we have a couple of less pleasant things to do too. Buddy has a remission progress exam at the cancer clinic tomorrow. As you know, these visits make me so nervous, always wondering what his bloodwork and tests will reveal. Cancer is a horrible dark cloud, hovering! And the clinic isn't the most pleasant place to be. Every animal there has cancer.

Plus ... it's that time for us again. Car shopping. Yuck! I hate doing it ... so much haggling with the dealers, I think I'd rather get a root canal, seriously. But, Sal's car has nearly 150,000 miles on it, so he's due for a new one. Time to spend money on perhaps the worst "investment" on the planet!

On Sunday, we'll be watching the Indy 500 race ... as former Hoosiers, it's a special tradition for us! The racetrack was only 20 minutes from where we lived in Indianapolis, so we went to the race one year. Loved taking in the action live from our seats at Turn 4 !!

So I'll catch you back here next week, if not before. I'll be sharing details about something NEW that I'm starting on June 1. Stay tuned!

Wishing you a holiday weekend full of sunshine, picnics, good times. Bring on summer! :-)

it's Marisa's special day!

Happy 10th birthday today to our niece, Marisa! She lives in Gulfport, Florida.

We wish you a FUN & SUPER day, Marisa! :-)

Gosh, Uncle Sal and I remember meeting you when you were just 2 days old! We were moving back to Florida from Indiana, and on the drive down we stopped in Georgia to visit your family. You and your Mom came home from the hospital that same day, and we met you for the first time! Can't believe that was 10 years ago!

Love,

Aunt Susan, Uncle Sal, Buddy & Aruba

all done!

Today I finished my work as a Census Enumerator! It was a unique experience, but after visiting nearly 80 residences, I can say that I've had my fill of it. But I was thankful to be assigned to 3 nice neighborhoods, all within 2 miles of my home. And my Crew Leader was professional and competent, really fab to work with. It was great $$$ for Buddy's cancer treatments, and I met mostly pleasant people. Lots of positives! :-)

But of course not all residents were happy that I was at their door ... some ranted about their views of the Census, the government, the perceived invasion of their privacy, etc. But I expected this, and it wasn't anything I couldn't handle ... it was certainly nothing compared to how badly I was often treated as an engineer! :-(

Overall it was an interesting experience, but not something that I'd like to do more than once every 10 years, LOL. So, until the 2020 Census .... {smirk}

it's Jonathan's special day!

Happy 19th birthday today to our nephew, Jonathan! He lives in Gulfport, Florida.

We hope you have a day full of FUN & happy memories, Jonathan! :-)

Love,

Aunt Susan, Uncle Sal, Buddy & Aruba

The Note

Yesterday was a special day for me and Sal !! It was the 22nd anniversary of the day we began dating. We celebrated the beginning of "us" by taking the entire day off and spending it together at the beach. So apropos, after all, since our first kiss was at the beach. As you can see, it was a beautiful day, but
w-i-n-d-y!


And every May 12, we pull out The Note that started it all. Sal and I had been studying together in the library, and he passed me a note, written on the back of an engineering problem we were working (geeks!), that said that he was in love with me! And the rest, as they say, is history ... because I was in love with him too! :-)

So yesterday I went to my keepsake box to have a look at The Note. And my heart sank when it wasn't there, OMG !!! I went into PANIC mode! That Note is as precious to me as my wedding ring ... how could I have misplaced it?!?!? I looked everywhere ... frantically. Nothing. I was trying to think back to last May 12, what did I do with it? I recalled that at this time last year, I was emotionally distraught over Buddy's health, so maybe I inadvertently just left it somewhere? And although we have a scanned copy of it, that's just not the same. I went to bed heartbroken.

Woke up this morning, thought I'd give it a fresh look. And there it was ... where it always is ... in my keepsake box! Except I had put it in an unlabeled, nondescript envelope ... in an effort to protect it from ripping apart. Oh, the RELIEF !!! Buddy & Aruba & I were jubilant (they were upset, too), and I called my "boyfriend" Sal with the good news.

And this time, before putting The Note back, I labeled the envelope.

radio show!

In my March 19 post, I (excitedly) mentioned how I got to participate in a taping of the "Travel With Rick Steves" Radio Show. Well, the show finally aired over the weekend on National Public Radio stations nationwide!! I think I sounded OK, but we all know how weird it is to hear our own voices on a recording, right? I was stunned that none of my comments were edited out! Rick and the producer kept everything I said!

The show was about Tuscany, Italy ... namely, the quaint Tuscan town of Cortona and the Under The Tuscan Sun memoir that made it famous. The author, Frances Mayes, was Rick's guest for the show, so I got to chat with both her and Rick. Speaking as a travel buff, and as a fan of both Italy and the book, it was such a THRILL for me!

If you're interested, click HERE to listen to the show. It's also available as a (free) podcast ... download it HERE. If you don't want to listen to the entire one-hour program, most media players let you jump ahead ... Rick introduces me about 38 minutes into the show, and my conversation lasts for 7 minutes. I had no idea how long I had been speaking with them, I was star-stuck! Hope you enjoy it!

And speaking of Rick ... if you're a fan, you'll want to own this! ... last week, Smithsonian Magazine published Travels With Rick Steves, a special issue dedicated to Rick's favorite things to see & do in Europe. Great writing, and the photos are pure travel eye candy! I already picked up my copy at Barnes & Noble over the weekend, lol.

Thanks for sharing in the fun of my radio debut! :-)

Ciao,

my Mother's Day

Apparently even us "Dog Moms" get special treatment on Mother's Day! Buddy & Aruba gave me a sweet card (with a little help from Sal, of course!). And I got special hugs and "paws" all day long! So wonderful to celebrate the day with my little family! :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the Moms out there ... especially my Mom & my Grandma & Sal's Mom ... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY !!!

Enjoy a day of relaxation and fun, you deserve it! :-)

Thanks for all you do!

Love,

"Hello, I'm Susan, with the Census Bureau"

Whew, I've been non-stop busy!


I spent all of last week in intensive Census training sessions. So now it's official, I was sworn in as a Census Enumerator! I began my work on Sunday. It's going well, so far so good! It's already hot here in SoFla ... 87 degrees most days, with a "feels like" temp of 93! ... so I'll admit that that's part of the challenge of the job, but it's all worth it to have $$$ for Buddy's continued cancer care. I just slather on the sunscreen, bring cold water, and wear cool & comfy shoes. I love Florida, so it's all good! And so far, I'm finding residents to be pleasant, courteous, and cooperative. Hope that continues!

I took Saturday off to enjoy a full day of fun to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day at Cherry Blossom Studio. There were 40 of us, the event sold out!

If I look tired, I was! And of course, I wore my favorite scrapbooking shirt, which always gets tons of laughs! ("My husband lets me buy all the scrapbooking supplies I can HIDE")

I had a blast ... met some great gals {waving hello to my new friend Suzanne!} and got some scrapbook pages done (here are a few ... and, as usual, I haven't added photos to them yet):

Actually, this page does have a photo because the store took group photos of the gals at our tables, and printed them for us as a NSD keepsake. I just happened to be making a "bliss" themed page, and the photo seemed a perfect fit to remember our spa/scrapping day!

We also ate yummy junk food all day ... ok, I tried to be good and eat some fruit too, but only because I love pineapple! The food kept coming all day long, including a delicious lunch and dinner. The store's NSD festivities revolved around a "spa" theme, in keeping with the day of relaxation. They teamed-up with a local spa to provide us each a 15-minute spa mini-treatment. I opted for the shoulder/neck/scalp massage, which was heavenly after a long week! The spa gave us $25 giftcards toward a future visit, so I'll definitely have to look into that, lol.

More later,

an oily mess!

Whew, what a busy week! I finished my Census training (more about that in an upcoming post) and will begin work on Sunday. I'm taking today off to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day at a local scrapbook store (more about that in an upcoming post, too). Happy NSD to my fellow scrappers!

Right now though I wanted to address something more urgent. No doubt that you've seen the news story about the oil rig explosion and subsequent massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It's tragic on so many levels, but most urgent at this moment is the imminent threat to wildlife, their habitats, and the ecosystem. It is predicted that the environmental impact of this spill could be even worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster many years ago in Alaska. That's AWFUL !!!

Many species of animals are threatened, including manatees, who live along the Gulf shores and rely on the fragile seagrass beds for food. The Save The Manatee Club has issued a plea to sign a petition that will help protect Florida's shores, and all its creatures, from needless additional oil drilling in the future.

I just hope that they can get the spill contained quickly and minimize the damage. All week I've been thinking about that Dawn dishwashing soap commercial, have you seen it?

More later....

it's Paul's special day!

Happy 40th birthday today to my brother-in-law, Paul! He lives in Philadelphia, PA.

Enjoy your milestone birthday, Paul! :-)

Love,

Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

a new week.....

Hey there & happy Monday!

Sal and I had a relaxing weekend, including a trip to Sonic together with Buddy & Aruba:

Buddy & Aruba love it! ... going for a ride (lookin' cool in Mommy's sporty Eclipse!), eating treats (the doggie kind, not the "human junk food" from Sonic, LOL), and people-watching.

I'm busy today getting miscellaneous stuff done before my Census training begins (later this week). Should be interesting!

Have a great week,

congratulations to my parents!

Today my parents are celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary! Yay! Congratulations, Mom & Dad!

Wishing you a fun & romantic day! :-)

Love,
Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

p.s. ~ happy Earth Day everyone!

way to go, Sal !!!

We spent the weekend celebrating because Sal was recently awarded $700,000 in federal research funding!!! This is one of the largest grants ever awarded to a professor in the Chemistry Dept at his university! The grant will further his lab's research of chemicals that are used during positron emission tomography (PET/medical imaging) of the brain. I know, pretty high-tech stuff, right?

It took a lot of HARD WORK and SACRIFICE to write that research proposal, and I am SO PROUD of him!

Congratulations, sweetheart ... savor your BIG achievement !!!

Love,

yay for Buddy!

Today is a day of CELEBRATION for us!

One year ago today Buddy was having extensive (and scary!) surgery ... a large cancer tumor was removed from his lung, along with 3 lobes of that lung! We are so THANKFUL that Buddy came through the surgery well, and was strong enough to begin the necessary chemotherapy treatments shortly afterwards.

This was Buddy one year ago:

We were not allowed to visit him the night of the surgery, he was too weak and the surgeon said it would be best to wait a day. That was so difficult for us, we wanted to see him! But the next day when we arrived to visit, I nearly fainted when they rolled him out in that oxygen box! I wasn't expecting that. Our poor Buddy!

We've appreciated all the well-wishes that you've sent our way over the past year, they have meant so much!

Enjoy the weekend,

another busy & fun weekend

Hey there and happy Monday! Hope that you enjoyed the weekend, and that the new week is off to a good start for you.

My weekend began with a fun scrapbooking class on Friday night, and then 2 more on Saturday. Cheryl Mezzetti, the design team coordinator for Creative Imaginations, was in town to teach for the weekend at Everything Scrapbook & Stamps.

We all had a great time ... she has amazing ideas & techniques! ... and her cute Boston accent was a novelty for us here in SoFla! We made 3 fab mini-albums. All of them have a beach and/or travel theme, so they were exactly what I love! I didn't quite finish them ... still putting the finishing touches on (I'm a slow scrapper, LOL!), so instead I'll show you pics of Cheryl's class samples:

"Tiki Hut" mini-album

"Perfect Escape" mini-album

"Inspired Traveler" mini-album

Aren't they incredible ?!?!?

On Sunday, Sal and I attended the annual Delray Affair. It's a huge outdoor arts & crafts festival that spans along 10 blocks of palm-tree-lined, picturesque downtown Delray Beach. It's a really big deal here, drawing a crowd of 300,000 people! And this year, for the first time, it included a travel expo too. It was great to spend some time chatting with others who are as obsessed about travel as I am!

be still my heart

Last week, I went to the doctor for a fairly routine appt for my high blood pressure. I mentioned that I sometimes have heart palpitations, so she scheduled me for some tests today. Lots of you have probably had these, too.

First, I had an echocardiogram (an ultrasound of the heart), which was painless and only took about 20 minutes.

Next, they outfitted me with a halter monitor that I have to wear for 24 hours. It's a gadget that records all my heart's rhythms via electrodes, which are stuck all over me right now. It looks like this, except mine has a lot more electrodes:

Plus, I have to keep a written journal of my activities, so the doctor can correlate them with what my heart's doing at those times (should I write down "blogging" right now? LOL).

And then I have to wait several days for the cardiologist's report. I'm hoping that these tests don't reveal any problems. I'm a little nervous ... and that's probably showing up on the heart monitor right now too, LOL.

let yourself go ... to the movies

"I want to go someplace where I can marvel at something."
--- from Eat Pray Love



The summer movie season is fast approaching, and is typically filled with lots of duds (just my $0.02). But 2010 looks like an exception, with 2 movies already on my summer calendar!

So what's even better than chick lit? A chick flick based on chick lit! LOL

Right now I'm reading (and loving!) Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Can't put it down! (and I really should since I told Sal that I'd clean my latest pile of scrapbooking stuff off the kitchen counter ... 3 days ago) I've read some reviews that say the author is self-absorbed, but I disagree. And even if she is ... HELLO? it's a memoir, so no duh!

So this being a best seller, Hollywood took notice. I'll let the movie trailer (that I've watched 5 times already!) divulge the storyline ...



That's some pretty scrumptious cinematography! So would you agree that if you love introspection and/or travel (to me, these go hand-in-hand), then EPL should be on your must-read/must-see list? Anyway, EPL hits theaters here in the U.S. on August 13. For worldwide release dates, click here.

Plus ... Letters to Juliet is coming out soon, May 14. Although it's probably somewhat predictable, it looks like a sweet story and OH!!!! get a load of that scenery of Verona! Sal and I haven't been to that part of northern Italy yet, but have always promised that it'll definitely be on our itinerary "next time". Here's the LTJ trailer:

a great weekend, Florida style

Hi there ~

Hope you enjoyed the holiday weekend ... had some fun ... relaxed a bit.

Sal and I did all of the above.

He patiently waited on Saturday while I went to Cherry Blossom Studio (a local scrapbook store) for a "garage sale". They invited scrapbookers to buy table space and sell their unwanted, gently-used scrapbooking goodies. I didn't see much of interest to me actually, but I did score a cute acrylic stamp set with a beachy theme ... starfish, sand dollars, and such ... you know how I love that kind of thing! And the set was only a dollar! :-)

Afterwards, we went to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, which is the northern-most portion of The Everglades. We've been meaning to check it out for months. Spent some time strolling the boardwalk through the stands of cypress trees draped in Spanish moss, enjoying the company of birds & alligators (yep, this is Florida folks!). The peace & quiet were so refreshing. And we learned that the Spanish moss is neither Spanish nor a moss. It's actually a member of the bromeliad plant family!

(The sun is already summertime-strong here in SoFla, so we have to wear hats and slather on the sunscreen for these nature walks!)

Today was also about simple pleasures ... we spent Easter Sunday here:

Have a great week,

Easter weekend

Today is Good Friday ... it's almost Easter ... as we remember Christ's suffering and celebrate his compassion and mercy, shouldn't we (Christian or not) resolve to extend that same compassion and mercy to God's most innocent and defenseless creatures --- animals?

Please consider serving an alternative menu this holiday ... one without ham, lamb, duck, or other animals for whom this is certainly no holiday. For cruelty-free (and delicious!) Easter dinner ideas, please go HERE.

And although the Seder has already been served, for compassionate Passover menus, click HERE.

Enjoy the holiday and as always, on behalf of suffering animals, thank you!

inspiration, squared

Hey there & happy April !! It's a new month ... and spring is in the air.

You may have heard on the news earlier this week that Jaime Escalante passed away. You may have never heard of him, but if you saw the movie Stand and Deliver, you know his incredible story well.

The film told how, as a math teacher, he INSPIRED a group of inner-city high-schoolers who had been written-off as failures by the school system and, even worse, by society. He saw their potential and molded them into confident math students with hope for their future. They went from struggling with fractions to mastering Advanced Placement Calculus! But not without confronting trials, struggles, and a hefty dose of discrimination along the way.

Sal and I were enrolled in our second semester of Calculus when this movie came out (1988). I remember our professor saying that we all MUST see it! Plus, that was right around the time Sal and I started dating. So, it's a special movie for us. We own very few movies, but a copy of Stand and Deliver is in our library. We plan to watch it again this weekend. The powerful story never gets old.

I highly recommend it!