ROCK at the KOA

I'm taking a class.

One of the surprising things talked about last week in class was the importance of a blog. In a different context, but the importance was stressed. Fresh content. Relevant content. Informative content. With lists. Lots of lists. People love lists. I love lists.

These days when I go on Facebook one of my favorite things to check out are links to lists.

• 10 Ways to Shop for Shoes
• 9 Mistakes You're Making at the Gym
• 8 Ways You Are Sabotaging Your Happiness
• 7 Things to Throw Away Today
• 6 Ideas You Didn't Know You Had
• 5 Celebrities That Are Dumb as a Box of Rocks

None of us want to have to dig too deep into a topic at first blush, but a pithy list? Bring it!

I am a list-maker. Always have been. From what I'm reading, my list-making is keeping me on task and organized.

OMG

I fear what would happen if I stopped my lists!

But I list-on. I've even, following my smart and lovely daughters in their lead, began using a handheld day planner again. Then the lists can be accompanied by check-offs. Oh those satisfying check-offs! Love love love this my hooches.

~~~~~~~~~~

Pup and I traveled around in our little Rigatoni RV for 10 days last month. I might tell a few stories eventually, but lets say that mostly what we learned is that we really do make each other laugh, that our dog is adorable, that we love living where we do, and mountains are beautiful to look at, but from a distance.

:)

There were a few times where I thought I was on a different planet! Our countryside is as varied as clever wine names.

Oh nummy! Wine! I think a glass of Ménage à Trois is in order!

What the heck?

A shot . . . or two . . .

We stayed in lots of KOAs across the land and I have to say that after a long day of sightseeing and defying death, it's so nice to come home to wifi, cable, sewer and water, and our cozy, big, over-the-cab bed. We were the smallest rig every night in those KOAs. How do those people drive an entire house around the country?  Some of those RVs are amazingly huge. Pup and I did laugh every night pulling in with our little Rigatoni. We looked a bit 1980s because, well, Rigatoni IS 1980s.

But it has a bathroom, hot water heater, a furnace, an oven, and a tiny TV for movies. Perfect for two bone-tired travelers at the end of the day.

We would sit at the tiny table and plot out the day to follow. How many miles, where we would stop, and what we would see.

Most heavenly!

Smooches!

I'll Have a Beer Dear

We had a little getaway to Fort Myers, Florida. I had never been to Florida. That's kinda weird yes? We had a sweet little suite right on the beach with a bedroom door which was great for insomnia nights. I just shut the door and Pup could sleep and I could wander around to the deck, sit with the door open, read, and listen to the ocean. The best!

I don't know about other parts of Florida, but Fort Myers is eclectic, energetic, relaxed. My brother-in-law calls it a kinda bikerish crowd. I kinda found it alternative. For me meaning every kind of person. The people working there seemed the kind of people that had decided the rat race not worth competing in and they had found a haven serving beers or running hotels.

A life on the beach doesn't look so bad to me!

Sand like powdered sugar. Lots of walking. Lots of drinking!

And hanging with Pup's sister and her husband was fun! They are a golden couple - kinda like looking into the sun I always say. And motivational. You haven't lived until you've had your photo taken with a woman near your age that is wearing a size 2-4 bikini and looking like her 28 year-old daughter. Eye opening!

Meanwhile back in Minnesota this was going on:

Baby KD had his first stroller ride. His momma said this photo was taken while she said his name. He's sound asleep, but while hearing his momma's voice smiled this angelic smile. Oh I can hardly stop my heart from bursting looking at him.

Trips and Falls

12.31.12

I'm up in the loft. Packing for our trip to the Dominican Republic. I'm on the phone with my Shelley-Belly.

"Are you guys so excited? Have you ever been there before?" my SB asks.

"We haven't! I'm trying to figure out outfits for seven balmy evenings," I reply.

"Hey Shelley-Belly? I'm feeling a bit weird - I think I just pooped my pants," I say.

And so it begins.


NOROVIRUS

I spend the rest of the afternoon with head shoved into a bucket so the other end can be safe. You get the picture.

I pass out on the sofa in The Big Room. I sleep so hard and long that I don't even hear George while he's begging to go outdoors. Poor Georgie.

Pup comes home.

"Do you think you'll be able to fly tomorrow?"

I shoot him a look. I don't think it was nice.

I can tell he thinks I'm being a puss. But later when I emerge from the bathroom I find him and all three pets staring at me from the steps to the loft.

"It's bad isn't it babe?" he asks.

I start crying.

Later Pup tells me, "I feel weird."

Pretty soon his head is shoved into a bucket.

Life is not good.

We miss our New Year's Day plane.

I fear we will miss the trip.

Pup has it, but not quite as badly as me. Doesn't it figure? Nothing vegetable-like EVER enters his body, yet his immune system is strong like bull. He is strong like bull.

By 1.2.13 he is feeling really good and I'm feeling kinda good. We decide to go on trip. Two days late and with adjustment fees (the bastards), but we go.

Yay!

The travel day for me is bad. Our first full day in the Dominican is Friday. I am in a fog.

Then the fog lifts and we have a great time!

I stole the window seat from Pup just once.

Grounds of our resort. Of course I did not manage to get a shot of the ocean.

But here's some food just so you know it's me behind the phone. 

We played Bingo. Hey, we were drinking, what can I say? And I won.

They are very busy sniffing everything I brought home.

I got to wear all of the boob-baring dresses in my closet. I browned my skin and look Spanish according to one of the staff at our lovely resort. I got halfway through Anna Karenina (this is a feat let me say), I saw my ass on video (holy hannah), lay by the pool, got in the pool, floated in the pool.

I got to hang with my dear dear friend Allie McBeal (the best travel companion ever), shopped a little, ate a lot, drank some, and just breathed the balmy sea air with really bad hair.

Lovely lovely so lovely.

It was worth the bucket.

Sexy Sadie

Pup and I are about to book an April trip. He works long and hard hours during the tax season and this year we are heading someplace (it's getting narrowed down) where there will be lots of beach, lots of sun, lots of theme drinks, lots of shopping, and maybe even lots of golf.

We are Minnesotans. We are pale, chubby, and not beach ready in the least. Not that all Minnesotans look like this, but enough do that I sometimes hear our part of the country talked about in a not so flattering light. I have amused myself many times in Las Vegas by picking out the people I'm certain are from Minnesota. They are usually wearing bad t-shirts and fanny-packs around largish bellies.

So . . . I am in a competition with a co-worker. We are getting to our fighting-weight and competitive bodies for our April trips. I'm trying to get Pup to participate as well.

Better eating, better exercise, and better feeling. And hopefully better looking.

Here is what I aspire to . . .

I stumbled on this just a few minutes ago while cleaning out my photo-log in my blog folder. I was struck by it once again.

This photo made the rounds a few months ago and I remember marveling when I saw it. A woman of a certain age, looking a certain way. A hot, non-bobblehead kind of body.

Helen - will you be my poster-girl?

Helen Mirren

The Riviera Maya

This is a shot from my PHONE because I, somehow, brought the wrong charging cord. Rats and Cats!

It was a fantastic vacation. I am still reeling from it in a way.

I have discovered that I love to travel, but I'm like a drunken sailor for days afterward. Or am I like this all the time and only notice when I'm groggy? Ha!

There is something about being someplace so incredibly beautiful that is puzzling to me.

Everywhere we looked on this vacation was a feast of beauty. To the saturation point. Like your eyes couldn't believe it was this lovely. Lush, exotic, sensual. Just looking would give you a lovelygasm. Over and over and over until you had to shut your eyes.

I think I could live in Mexico.

It Was Heaven, but the Wi-Fi Wasn't

Oh!

Vacations are awesome, but it is always sooooo good to get home.

I've been flying all day and am now wired for sound at 1:11 in the morning. Who knows when I'll simmer down.

I just drank a large glass of milk and while waiting for it to work its magic, I'll read my blogs and see what ya'll have been up to.

Yay!

Is There Wi-Fi in Heaven?

Packing for a Trip

Dream Packing

How I Really Do It

Distracted. I just discovered Pandora radio. How do I get around on a daily basis anyway? How am I so late to so many parties? I KNOW that my daughter Lorenzo has told me about Pandora SEVERAL times.

So, if I can figure it out, I am going to be able to listen to Pandora on my Blackberry while on vacay. I do sometimes get sick of my iPod selections. After all, I only have zillions of songs to listen to on that damn thing. Why do I hit skip skip skip when it's on?

So, packing for a trip.

I have clothes on a roller bar in the bedroom. Chuck full of shit. Shoes laying all over. Trying to cull it down to a weeks worth of loveliness. I'll get there and have NOTHING to wear which is okay. We'll be in our swimsuits mostly anyway right? Who needs clothes at night? It's dark. We'll do naked dining. Is this wrong?