Peaches Prattlings











Technically 10 is a double digit, there are two of them, right? Why do we say 11 is really the first double digit. Is it because it’s the same two digits? I have no idea!

Doesn’t matter!!! EJS is going to be ELEVEN on Wednesday, can you believe it?! I, for one, cannot. Imagine what it’s like for my sister and brother-in-law! I remember so much from the last eleven years, I know, almost eleven, don’t push it! Ok, I’m going to stop here, because if I tell you everything fabulous about her today, what will I tell you on Wednesday, although I’m sure I could think of a few more!

Today we had the party. Originally EJS had wanted a bouncy house, they are super fun, but…Mid March in Massachusetts, that’s a mouthful in and of itself! But mid-March in Mass…touchy with the weather. Good thing they didn’t…it snowed hard this past week and there would not be a flat surface for the bouncy house this weekend!

So… it was a slimy weekend! She had six friends come over and they made…slime! The table was set with glue, laundry detergent, soap, shaving cream and lots of things to put into the slime, such as food coloring, beads, sparkly things, shiny things, everything that a kid could want for their slime and so much more!

Who knew eight kids could be so fascinated making slime for over two hours! There were containers galore so each kid made at least two, if not more! It was pretty cool and for once, the grownups barely made an entrance into the lab!

We hung out in the kitchen, munching on snacks of junk and healthy, a fine mix! Then after the slime had slung, the girls went downstairs to play games, then upstairs to play games, then downstairs and then it was time for dinner! Pizza, pasta, salad, oh my!

After dinner, it was Pitch Perfect and then ice cream cake and then pretend to go to sleep. Oh, did I mention it was a sleepover party too? The cutest thing to hear was them trying to recreate the songs from Pitch Perfect. Too perfect!

I think the last one went down about 11:30pm! Oh, I do not envy their parents tomorrow! Luckily, they all go home by 9am, we go to brunch and hear…crickets.

Eleven, wow. Yeah, that’s about it. I’ll tell you more on Wednesday!



{March 14, 2018}   Happy Pi Day!

It’s March 14th…that would be 3.14!

This is the 30th anniversary of Pi day! THIRTY years! 1988 was the earliest known official celebration of Pi Day. It was organized by Larry Shaw, who worked as a physicist. He would march around a circular space, with staff and public and then eat fruit pies! He worked at the San Francisco Exploratorium and they still hold the Pi Day celebrations!

On March 12, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution recognizing March 14, 2009 as National Pi Day! What are the odds? Something that someone thought would be fun is now a national thing!

I ordered a few fruit pies for the office, there was a cherry, peach and a sweet potato, they didn’t have the sweet potato, so they sent a crumble. Yum!

And then…to top it off, I met WIS for our last date night! At Kitchen 17, the new location. Do you remember me telling you about it last week? Well, it was time for pizza pie! We tried something different, mac-n-cheese pizza! Different, but yummy!

How perfect is that? On Pi Day, 3.14, I had pizza pie and fruit pie. And I ate with a sweetie pie! How could I resist?

I hope you got a piece of pie! Happy Pi Day!



{March 13, 2018}   I paid for this torture!

I’m back in Chicago this week and I’m back in the gym. Ouch!

I will give you the entire rundown on my trainer soon, but just know that I am in pain! OMG! Some days, PSM would say I am walking like a constipated dog! Isn’t that a fabulous image?!

I have been working out on my own, well, virtual training. I use an app to show me what exercises I need to do. Being in a hotel or at home, I do a lot of no equipment workouts, there aren’t always weights, sometimes just treadmills and elliptical machines.

Since I’m here in Chicago this week and last, my trainer was super excited about me coming in to train at the gym. He’s been asking me to come in for months and here I am!

So… since everything I’ve been doing has been no equipment, any guesses what he and the other trainers are doing to me?! Yup, you guessed it! Weights, weights and more weights!

Every day they give me something new and oh my! Let’s just say last week was worse than this week so far. But the week is still young.

Tonight it was 630pm, tomorrow 630am. Let’s do this!

Ouch!



{March 7, 2018}   A work GNO…awesome!

Tonight was a girls night out with some co-workers.

It was DLP, myself, JM, you might remember her from our movies in the park over the summer and PB. OMG! I just realized, she and I together and PB & J! How funny is that?! I am so easily amused!

PB has been in the field, JM rolled off the project a while ago, so it was great to

We met at MAD Social, https://www.madsocialchicago.com/, a lot of plates for sharing, salads, flats, skewers, they were able to make some of them vegan, which was great for me and plenty to eat!

DLP and I went from the office, PB and JM were coming from other locations. We haven’t all seen each other in quite a while, so it was fabulous to be together. We laughed, we caught up, we talked about what’s next, laughed, and repeated the process all over again.

What a great time we had tonight, seeing each other and spending time together, sharing stories, time and affection. It’s not always easy to connect with co-workers on that level. You might be friendly with some, but to take it to the next level, it doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it’s special.

Looking forward to the next GNO, fabulous!



{March 5, 2018}   That’s so cool!

Got into the Uber tonight and saw something cool!

On the center console was a clear case made by Car Go. It had all sorts of goodies. I’ve been in Uber’s that had water, sometimes candy, but this went beyond!

It was like a vending machine all in a small box! There were chips, candy, healthy snacks, junk, gum, energy shots, headache pills and even condoms! You had it all!

You go to the app, put in the number, select your items, it gets charged to the card on file and the driver is notified and you get your items. There are also USB charging ports.

You have everything you could possibly need. Seriously, how cool is that?!



{March 5, 2018}   Do I really have to go?

I know, I know, all good things must come to an end.

No, I’m not dying, we’re not leaving Hawaii, I am so dramatic sometimes! I just didn’t want to leave home. That’s all! I have to go back to the real world, I have to go back to work. Well, I worked last week, I have to go to Chicago and go into an office at the client’s site.

It was nice being home, I wonder what it would be like to be home full time. Well, it depends on where I live, of course. In this case, Hawaii, yeah, I think I could do it. I’m not sure if I could get up to start work at 4:15am every day, but that finishing and being able to go to the beach at 1:30/2pm every day, hmmm…

I got up every morning between 4:15 and 4:45am, started working, got on conference calls, if I was able to actually get out of bed at 4:15/4:30am, I’d work out, otherwise, I would work out later in the day, have lunch about 1pm, done between 1 and 2pm, either go to the beach, take Mollie for a walk, eventually cook dinner, I experimented with a few things, I ate some good meals! did some

Now, on the other hand, if I can go every weekend, or at least three weekends a month, that would be like a ‘normal consultant’, oh wow! I could do that!

I have to say, every time I’m home and we get to spend the weekend together, like a normal couple, it gets harder to leave, especially when we know we won’t see each other for about a month.

On that note, I am happy to report that we booked our next trip! OMG! We are so excited about it and I cannot wait to tell you all about it! But you know that won’t happen until we go, but I promise to tell you everything, well, maybe not everything! We had the darnedest time, yes I said darnedest! Getting to where we want to go! I think I told you that as long as we live in Hawaii, we want to go to as many Pacific Islands we can, while it’s not too difficult to get to from where we are. It was something, but at least we have a going/coming tickets, in the middle, we’ll figure it out!

I think this was more of a ramble, wouldn’t you say? I just wanted to get things on paper, so to speak, just my thoughts. Remember, this is free therapy for me and I also want to share with you. You see, no matter how much fun I have on the road, with all my adventures, being home is just another adventure to me and I’d like more of that!

I’m flying back to Chicago as we speak, so please have a great week! I wonder what we’ll talk about tomorrow!



PSM got home yesterday and today we got to spend the day together. What more could you ask for?

Nothing, it was great! He’s been off island for two weeks, he’s happy to be home, wouldn’t you be? We got up, hung out, eventually got some food and as we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do and the weather was not too favorable, it became a movie day.

We started with Jumanji, loved. Geostorm, ok. The Princess Bride, la la la love, who doesn’t?! The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, with Ben Stiller, always like. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, it was ok.

What a great day, we talked, we laughed, we watched movies, we cooked together, talked, laughed, connected.

The perfect day. Do I really have to leave tomorrow?



{March 2, 2018}   Island Life…it’s rough…
So, last week and this week, I am working remotely.
Yes, you figured it out, that means I am working from home…in Hawaii. Now, I know you’re thinking ‘ooh, rough life’ “I’m not sure I like her right now”. Ok, fine, hate on me, ha ha.

Now, there are pluses and minuses. Wait, did she just say minuses? Yes, I said minuses. Let’s talk about the pros and cons. The pros…I get to be at home, in my own bed, in my house, my dog, the beach, the weather. Um, you forgot your honey. Nope, he’s not here! What? You’re there, he’s not? How does that work?!

Well, I’ll tell ya. He had to be off island last week and this week, so someone had to sacrifice and stay with Mollie, so I fell on my sword for this one, I know, I know, it’s a sacrifice, but I’m so humble, what else could I do?! Ha ha!

PSM was in Illinois, go figure, last week and Iowa this week. I know, you’re jealous, Iowa in February, hold yourself back! So, I’m here in Hawaii. I have everything I want/need, except the fella. Luckily, he’ll be home on Friday so we’ll have our normal weekend together!

Now, here I am in paradise and the con…I am keeping my central time zone hours, that means I start working 5am, I’m glad it’s not east coast hours, that’s another hour! Yup, the alarm starts going off at 4:30am, another at 4:45am, the nice thing, I roll out of bed and into the office, sometimes in my jammies, I have no energy to get dressed yet, sometimes I’m lucky to brush my teeth!

I start work and then take a break to at least maybe get dressed! I work 5am until about 12:30/1pm that’s a full 9 hour day, but guess what I get to do now?! Yup, take a nap! lol. It’s lunchtime about then and…yes, as you may have thought, go to the beach.

Now, at the moment, it’s still winter in Hawaii and the last month hasn’t been great for the beach goer, it’s been colder, windy and raining a lot. I’ve been to the beach three so far since I got home last week, sigh.

I keep looking to the clouds to ask where the sun is and if they could just part a little, but no love there. Now, even though there’s no sun, I’m done by 2pm at the latest and that means I have the rest of the day to do everything or nothing! How much would we love to be able to do that in our normal days? I take nothing for granted!

I finished work and said, I don’t care, I’m going to the beach. So I put in my suit, grabbed a towel, beach mat, bottle of water and my book and to the beach I went. Oh yeah, and a sweatshirt, it was chilly.

I got to the beach, it was Tracks Beach, one of my favorites, a locals beach, it’s not much of a beach, great for surfing, no, I haven’t tried it, too rough for me on a stand up paddle board, I’m not that experienced yet. I think I’ve told you, if there are 20 people on it, it’s crowded.

When I got there, there were two people leaving and two kids were fishing. I rolled out the mat, settled in, opened my book and enjoyed the breeze.

Eventually it was just me and the two fishing and then three boys showed up, all about 10 years old, they played, swam, jumped, horsed around and enjoyed just being together and brothers.

Eventually, the mist came in, a good time to pack up and go. Good thing to! As I was driving, with the top down, the downpour started! Now, the great thing about a convertible, keep moving, windows up and the drops go past ya! I made it home and the headrest was a little damp, but I was dry, love that!

What a day! Even a rainy day on an island is a good day! Who wants to join me?!



{February 26, 2018}   Ah, there you are!

I love getting a new haircut and I do love my short haircuts.

I’m sure I’ve told you that I look just like my mom and every time I cut it short and dye it this shade of red, I look even more like her. This time several people said it was the best cut and color I’ve had in a long time, the color was perfect, especially for my coloring. That was a lot of color, wasn’t it?!

And then on top of the short haircut, I really like spiking it. It feels fun and fierce. I don’t spike it for a bit after I cut it, at first, it doesn’t need it, stands up on its own! Then it gets too long to stand up on its own, so I need to give it some help. I’ve tried different products, some hold all day, some I find fall flat after a few hours, some are like cement, some keep a wave, some stand straight up, it’s been a challenge. I know when the gel just slicks it all back, it’s time for a haircut.

I cut it a few weeks ago in Denver, I’ve just been washing, scrunching and going, this morning, after I showered, I put gel in my hair and spiked it and looked in the mirror and thought “Oh, there you are!’

I smiled big at that!



Another day in paradise. Even though I had to work, it’s still paradise.

I got up way too early, which was planned, I’m keeping my central time hours, that means a 4:15am wake up. Wait, isn’t that what I did yesterday?!

I got up, worked out, my ankle finally decided it was done giving me trouble! Wahoo! So, work out, protein shake and get to work. I started at 5am, which is 9am in Chicago, perfect! I worked until about 2:30pm my time, I had lunch about 1:30pm my time, 5:30pm Chicago, I think that would be considered a very late lunch!

After I finished working, I picked some basil from the garden and made some vegan pesto, yum! I was wandering through our garden and saw that we have a new orchid, it’s great, we don’t do anything and they keep showing up in the base of the palm tree, go figure!

Then it was time…for the beach, I am going to make the most of my time at home! I packed a bag and headed out, it was fabulous, super simple. Laid out my blanket and got to, well, doing nothing! I waded into the water, talked to a few people, read my book, took a nap and then the sun started setting, phenomenal! Look at those colors!

Back to the house, I had some work to do, make some dinner, laundry and now talk to you. I’m a wee bit knackered, wonder why!

How was your day?



et cetera