What I love! | Peaches Prattlings

{October 4, 2015} Mawiage…is what bwings us togevah today

Admit it, you quoted the next line. Or any line for that matter!

The Princess Bride…it elicits great memories fore all of us, well those of us that have seen it, ever, but especially if you saw it the first time in the 1980s.

The movie is 28 years old, can you believe it! I still remember seeing it for the first time, I have the 25th edition of the DVD and the book, spot on it was.

One of the great things about this movie is there are so many quotable lines and as I’m thinking about this, I might have written about this before. But, what I was about to say was that if you post one line from the movie on Facebook, like the title of my post, you start a flurry of activity! People will start post after post after post of memorable quotes.

You know you’ve had entire conversations with quotes from just this movie, admit it. And you love it!

And I know you were thinking “Hello, My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRAI9_MkmBM

Inconceivable!

As you wish…

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/?ref_=nv_sr_1

{October 3, 2015} Warm wishes this Sukkot

We are in the middle of Sukkot and I send you warm wishes.

Sukkot is a holiday that Jews celebratein the fall, it marks the end of the harvest. It ha been referred to as the Jewish Thanksgiving.

We celebrate by eating outside in buildings or booths constructed in our backyards. It is traditionally made of wood and has a thatched roof, the important part is that even though your head is covered, you can still look up abs see g-d.

This is a joyous holiday and one of the fun traditions is that once the sukkah is built, then you decorate it. Some use vegetation such as leaves and flowers, some use lights and make paper chains, some use fruits and vegetables.

The point is to enjoy it while it’s up, so you decorate it to your liking. If you are more religious or observant, you would eat in it, every meal, maybe even sleep in it.

Tonight, neighbors of GES and ACS hosted in their backyard, it was great. We had friends, family, food, fire andfun, what more could you want!

Warm wishes to you and yours.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukot

{September 30, 2015} Hap to me! I’m 44!!!

OMG! I’m 44, can you believe it?

As my friend KWH says…Hap to me! Hap to me! Hap to me!

First…I have to thank everyone for all of the FABULOUS birthday wishes, I am truly a lucky girl. My first birthday wish came early, it was yesterday and KWH texted to wish me an early happy birthday, a good way to start.

I got up and worked out with MS and CG, so I started my birthday sweatin’ my arse off! Felt good! I guess I’m not too old, I kept up, put in a good workout and didn’t pass out after. Wahoo!

In between working out and shower, I had phone calls and texts, I was off to a great start to my birthday. There were two texts from SDL and Miss A and JCH and my first call, PSM singing and wishing me a happy birthday [and it’s our 8 month anniversary, cool, huh?] A great way to start my birthday day.

Then GES, MGS and EMS called and sang happy birthday to me, it was awesome! Now, there is a tradition, much easier with younger kids, maybe you do this…after you sing Happy Birthday, you chant “Are you one? Are you two? Are you three…” when you’re a kid, it doesn’t take long, when you get older…so they sang “Are you one? Are you two? Are you five? Are you ten”…When they got to 40 [Are you going to stop us? Yes! When you get to 44!]. A fabulous call!

The next call was from my dad, another family tradition my grandmother started. “This is Western Union calling for JJ, is JJ available?” “I’m here” Then the singing started “Happy Birthday” and “Are you one? Are you two?” How much laughing did you do before 7:30am today? LOVE!!!

Then it was shower and get ready for work, head out in the downpour, crazy traffic, omg! As soon as I saw the highway from the street, I took back roads and it still took me 40/45 minutes to go 12 miles! Others, it took about an hour!

A little while after I got to work, HH came in to where I was with a bag containing a funny card and some glitter nail polish, which I loved! She’s the one who introduced me to the party nail, it was perfect! And then CH came in with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, sunflower right in the middle, so pretty and a really cute card that everyone signed, it was so touching!

I got a few calls while I was at work, SRH and LaLa I got to talk to, I missed a call from TS, but got a great voice mail and I hope we can catch up this weekend.

After work I headed to the hotel to grab a quick bite to eat and sit down at last and look at FaceBook and start to thank everyone for their amazing birthday wishes! I ran out of time before I had to go out, so I know what my evening activity will be tomorrow! I am so touched and thankful for all the amazing birthday wishes I have received and I’m still receiving, I am a very lucky woman. THANK YOU!

The text messages keep coming in! AM, ST, CWB and if I’ve forgotten anyone, I’m sorry!

Even Google got in the game!!!

PSM and Mollie picked me up about 8pm and took me to my sister’s house where there was a surprise party happening! ACS was home with the girls, there were some neighbors there already and then CO’F, JF and MF came over, then all of a sudden the lights were out and the singing and candles started! “Happy birthday to you” “Are you one!” OMG!

What did they put the candles in, since I can’t have cake? Gluten free, vegan cupcakes, how cool is my family!!! PSM and GES coordinated and it was great! I got to eat a sweet on my birthday and you couldn’t tell!!! There were also “regular” cupcakes for everyone else, which the kids of course loved.

While we were enjoying the goodies, LR showed up, with the cutest card from the family, this was getting better and then GES finally got home from curriculum night at the girls’ school, it was a party! A little while after everyone left, RG showed up, how fabulous and when I got back to the hotel, TS called, how lucky am I!!!

So…my presents! You can’t have a birthday without presents!!! I opened my gifts from my dad this morning and he nailed it! There was a mug, tote bag, t-shirt and mug all with Al Hirschfield on it. OMG! He is the best! I have loved Al Hirschfield since I was a kid! http://www.alhirschfeldfoundation.org/. And there were four musical and awesome cards!

When I got in the car tonight, there was a present from PSM. A cool set of picture dominos, you can almost tell a story with them! And there was a minion and a great card. What a great guy I have! Thank you PSM! And a card from his family, JM, SM and their kids, J and M. THANK YOU!

When I got to GES’, the girls ran up with hugs and cards, then after cupcakes…I got a Go-Pro camera!!!! And an accessory pack! And free storage in the cloud, OMG! That was my gift from dad, GES, ACS, EJS and MGS, wow, am I spoiled or what??? The answer is yes!!!

I do want to send a HUGE HAPPY BIRTHDAY to NB, my twin! Happy birthday my friend, I am so glad you’re in my life, I cant imagine my life without you in it! We’ve been friends since freshmen year of college and we are four hours apart, how crazy is that!!! Happy birthday!!!

So…I have had a fabulous birthday [if I have forgotten anything, please forgive me!]. I am off to a brand new year and you have all helped me start off on the right foot, thank you!

{September 29, 2015} The same server, really? Nooooooo

You have got to be kidding me! The same so-so server a second time? C’mon!

Tonight we had a roll off dinner for the entire team, including a few extra people and we were 13 people at a table meant for 10, a bit squished, but it was alright, we are a close knit bunch and enjoy each other’s company, so it was all good.

Last month, I think it was, we went to this restaurant and the service was terrible. It felt like we had a brand new server, turns out this was not the case. He was incredibly slow bringing water, I had to ask three times for water, while one person was ordering a drink, he walked away. Another time, he tried to take a drink from someone’s hand, the orders took a long time to come out, when it was time to order dessert, he left off half of us, so not a great impression.

Both myself and MS, the Project Manager said something to the manager and we got a $50 gift card, very nice and we came back to that restaurant for our roll off dinner and THE SAME SERVER!!! He is a very pleasant person, it’s just that his skills waiting tables are lacking.

We had to tell him we wanted to order appetizers, then I went to find someone so we could order our main meals. I talked to one of the managers and she said he was a good server. I mentioned that maybe he wasn’t good with large parties, she said they had considered that and had been working with him. Oh well.

I will say that the food was good, everyone was happy, but don’t get me started about the service!

{September 28, 2015} Dating Sites…love ’em…hate ’em

A necessary evil?

Tonight I helped a good friend, HH, set up her profile on a dating app, one I hadn’t heard of until recently. It was fun, I helped her select photos, come up with tag lines, interests, likes, ice breakers, a few other things. I can’t wait to see what happens!

Getting back “on the dating horse” can be stressful, I know I went through it when I got divorced and then between dating after that. Do I join a club? Do I ask friends? Do I go online?

Online dating has changed over the years. In the beginning it was kind of taboo, no one admits to meeting someone online. I remember when I started one guy had a tagline that said “We’ll tell them we met over coffee”. Why do you have to lie? Can’t you tell people you met in an unconventional way? Nowadays, people say it all the time, although, after a recent scandal, people wonder, hmmm.

One of the things I love to do is help people set up their online dating profiles, helping them navigate the site, choosing taglines, but what I enjoy more than anything is writing profiles. I have written some fabulous profiles, for people I know and people I didn’t know, I even wrote a profile for a guy I met on a train, how weird is that! I wrote a profile for a guy I was dating while we were dating. He started it, he asked, “what would you write about me?” so I wrote him a profile and said “If it doesn’t work out, use this”, it was pretty good too. Guess what…I think he met his wife from the profile!

Speaking of that! When ACS’ brother, JS was visiting me in Georgia, I helped him sign up for one of the sites and I wrote him a profile and he used a picture of Jymy, who looks just like his cat and…he met his wife, AS, using the profile I wrote, I was stoked! They are so perfect for each other!

I’ve written a few profiles for friends that have led to marriage, I am so tickled when that happens, it really means a lot and makes me feel good. I use specific criteria that I apply to each profile and work with what I know about the person or what they tell me is important. One friend had someone say they were too good to be true and another had someone tell them “I’m not sure if I want to meet you or the person who wrote this profile!” That was flattering, not what I was going for, but flattering!

It’s tough out there, the unexpected, the new, the unknown, the excitement, the fear, the apprehension, the anticipation. But you gotta get out there, right? Dating sites are like a blessing and a curse, all at the same time.

Like I said, a necessary evil.

So…going to start dating? Need a profile written?

Good luck!

{September 26, 2015} What a day!

Sleeping in, ha! A great breakfast, a trip to the airport, a baseball game, a scratched car, groceries and bad food, whew!

I’ve told you about my friend, ST, my first work spouse, we have worked together at a few companies since 2009 when we started traveling together training on hand held devices. We see each other sometimes when I am in Atlanta and we were talking a few weeks ago and I said come to Bahston for the weekend and here he is!

Last night was Rita Rudner and today was another jam packed day. We slept in, well, he slept in, the bed is oh so comfy, it’s hard not to fall deep into the covers and pillows and…I got some bedding and slept on the couch, you know where I’ve fallen asleep before and then had to decide…get up and get into the bed or stay right here? hmmmm…

So, ST slept until almost 9am and of course, I was up about 6:30, fun. We got motivated, then called CH, my friend and co-worker, who calls me Smurf! and we all headed towards Cambridge. We parked at PSM’s house, thank you, and walked to the Friendly Toast, I’ve told them about it a few times and away we went. We put our names in and the wait was about an hour. Somewhere along the way, I told PSM where we were eating and he and his nephew, JM, met us there and waited with us and waited and waited.

We finally got a table and it was so worth it, both the people watching and the food. I had an egg sandwich with vegan cheese on gluten free bread and a gluten free pancake, OMG! I was happy! Everyone was happy!

After brunch, we went back to PSMs, then headed to the airport to pick up CH’s husband, who had just landed, perfect timing! Then we headed to the hotel to freshen up and change for our next adventure.

Off to the T station to take the train to Fenway Park, for the Red Sox vs Baltimore Oriole’s. A Yankee in Fenway and I didn’t explode! We stayed a few innings, had some food and then we were done, just long enough for ST to get a hat that he now loves, a beer and some treats.

Back to the train, get to the car and found a giant scratch down the side, what? It took multiple tries to get through to someone at Avis to report the issues, geesh. Tomorrow, we’re doing something pretty cool, I’ll tell you about it then, but we needed supplies so to the liquor and grocery store went.

We get back to the hotel and realize we forgot something…lottery tickets, the jackpot $267M, think that’s worth $2? Oh yeah! So, out to the gas station to get tickets, then we went in search of food and went to a local pizza place that is supposed to be good. I was excited, gluten free dough! My order…gluten free crust, olive oil and garlic, no cheese and a few veggies on top, broccoli, spinache and grilled eggplant. What happened when we get back? Tomatoes. Really? Did I say tomatoes? Maybe I should have told her that I was allergic to tomatoes, didn’t know I had to. That’s why I repeated garlic and olive oil only, oh well…I called and they refunded the money. Someone might enjoy the pizza.

Now, we’re crashed out, in our jammies, can you say that about a guy? ST in the bed and I’m curled up on the couch ready to crash, we have a very early day tomorrow, can’t wait!

Until then…sweet dreams.

{September 25, 2015} Rita Rudner is funny, timeless and classy

The longest running solo act in Las Vegas says a lot.

She was also voted nicest comedian for quite a few years. Her act, tonight, she said two bad words, a** and sh*t, that’s pretty impressive for a comedian these days, wouldn’t you agree? With all the foul mouthed comics out there, and don’t get me wrong, they have their place, some of them, it’s refreshing.

I started following Rita Rudner years ago, I love stand up comedians, doesn’t matter male or female, as long a they are funny, makes sense, right? She has great timing and delivery and just says what’s on her mind, although I know most of it is rehearsed, the way she says it, makes you think it’s not all scripted.

She’s poignant, current, on point and just talks about real life. There is still talk of her life as a celebrity, but more about her life as a mother and wife, but funny, funny, funny.

Dad took me to see her a few years ago in Las Vegas and also got me a copy of her book, autographed, wahoo! And it’s one of my treasured possessions.

So great to get to see her in Boston, I’m looking forward to the next time!

Quotes: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rita_rudner.html

http://www.ritafunny.com/

{September 24, 2015} What have you made in the microwave? A quiche?

I did!

Did you even know you could make a quiche in the microwave? To be honest, I figured you could, just wasn’t positive. C’mon, what can’t you make in the microwave!?

Well, the one thing I don’t like about my hotel room is no oven, as much as I microwave, but I would love to be able to bake things, you know what I mean? Well, I was going to pre-Yom Kippur dinner and I knew for their main meal, they were having brisket and that’s just not for me.

I thought about what I wanted and that’s when I started wondering if there were microwave recipes that I might like and I thought, quiche! And it was awesome! I followed some of the recipe and the rest I improvised.

I used polenta on the bottom of the pie pan, then I mixed some spinach, broccoli, a mix of different vegan cheeses and four eggs. It was a cross between a quiche and a frittata, score!

Then I put it in the microwave for 15 minutes and let me tell you, I would have preferred to eat it when it came out of the microwave, it smelled and looked great! In hindsight, I think I should have cooked it without the mozzarella on top and put the mozzarella on when reheating it the next day, but still yummy! I had it for left overs at lunch today, it was good!

So…yes, you can make a quiche in the microwave!

And now for my next trick…

{September 23, 2015} Family, family and more family!

Today was about atonement, praying and family.

We started the day at temple for Yom Kippur services. The services were nice, very family friendly, long enough to “fit everything in” but short enough to be too much for kids. There were some very poignant moments, things that make you think, make you feel, make you appreciate and make you want to do and be better, isn’t that what it’s supposed to do?

The most important part, I was with my family and happy to be there with them, the only thing that would have made it more perfect, dad and PSM.

After services, we went back to the house to relax, ACS and I even got in naps, between you and me, naps are very underrated! After napping, we all worked on getting the house ready for the onslaught of people who were coming over to break the fast and about five pm, they started showing up. All the friends who, as you know, because I’ve told you, are extended family, Auntie J was in her element with all the wee tots! It was fabulous, so many people were in the house and it filled up with love fast.

There were still people arriving as I was leaving to head to A&J T’s house to break the fast with PSMs family. I knew a few people when I got there, AT, her mother and her girls, PSMs sister-in-law JM and PSMs nephew, JM, a few cousins and an uncle. Slowly, more and more people started arriving to join the family. It was nice to meet more of PSMs family, cousins, aunties, uncles, put faces to names or names to faces, as it were. There were stories and memories and laughs and reflections and food and good times, really wonderful.

Now that he’s met my Boston family and I’ve met most of his family, it’s time for him to meet my Atlanta family, I know they are looking forward to it. We’re coming!

A great day, family, family and more family.

{September 22, 2015} If I have wronged you…I am sorry

That is the way you reach out to friends and family, loved ones, at this time.

Tonight is Erev Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year and part of the High Holy Days, along with Rosh Hashannah.

We observe by spending time with friends and family for the last meal before our 25 hour fast, sundown to sundown. We fast so that we can focus our thoughts where they should be on who we are, what we have done, how we will repent and on g-d. Some people begin the holiday, like my sister and I, going to Kol Nidre. “Prayer services begin with the Kol Nidrei prayer, which is recited before sunset. Kol Nidre is a prayer that dates back to 9th century Palestine. It is recited in a dramatic manner, before the open ark, using a melody that dates back to the 16th century.”

After services we go home to reflect and then in the morning we will go to services most of the day. As fasting brings our focus where it is supposed to be, spending the day in temple helps, with our focus, and not focusing on the fact that we are hungry!

“On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. Who shall live and who shall die. Who shall prosper and who shall perish and the list goes on. We hope to have our names in the book of life on Rosh Hashana and sealed on Yom Kippur.

I know you noticed that I opened with “If I have wronged you” this is something we say to friends and family, asking for forgiveness for wrongs I have committed willingly or wrongs I have committed unintentionally. And hopefully they will say they forgive you and hope you feel the same way.

So, I will close with this…

If I have wronged you in any way this past year, I ask your forgiveness and hope you can forgive me. Amen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur

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