Re-posting...but it's a cute one!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Love babies? Of course!

Griffin Hospital wins Baby-Friendly designation 

 

Several first-time moms and their babies attended a celebration Thursday of Griffin Hospital's designation as a Baby-Friendly hospital. Pictured from left are Alina Probierz of Seymour with Liliana Nowak, nine months; Meghan Cole of Milford with Ella, 11 months; and Jaimie Kassheimer of Ansonia with Zach Kassheimer, nine months. Patricia Villers/Register


Griffin is one of only five hospitals in Connecticut to receive the designation. See story today for more on this upbeat award.

* I've been rather busy with writing for work this month (breast cancer awareness and all) and really can't think of much to write about here on Late Bloomer, so today I've decided to re-post from my work blog.

I've written two spooky stories for the Halloween season and looking forward to them running in the paper in the near future. Gotta have a little fun! 

BOO!

Still searching for the sundae of my dreams

Yumm...a hot fudge sundae, an ice cream cupcake, and Moose tracks 

Ice cream 101 continues: Bethany edition

On Saturday I went to the newly-opened Ansonia Farmer's Market and met a young couple selling vegetables grown at Darling Farm at the historic Thomas Darling House in Woodbridge. The two are caretakers there and started a farm this spring.

Since husband Ralph, daughter Allegra and I all like learning local history, we drove there today to take a peek.

This house at 1907 Litchfield Turnpike in Woodbridge is on the National Register of Historic Places.  

While we were in the "neighborhood," we continued driving to Bethany and stopped at Billy's Old-Fashioned Ice Cream, 742 Amity Road (Route 63). We had been there before, but it had been quite a few years.

Since it's my ice cream series I threw caution to the wind and ordered the big, fat hot fudge sundae...strawberry ice cream was under all the whipped cream. I haven't had a sundae in a long time. It was quite good!

Next post I do I'll have to go back to having just one unadorned scoop.


Ralph enjoyed a cup of Moose tracks ice cream, and our daughter tried something a bit different, an ice cream cupcake.
It was a chocolate brownie topped with vanilla ice cream and sprinkles. She said it was super-sweet and she couldn't finish it.

But she liked what she did eat!

I was surprised that we were the only customers. The weather wasn't bad, no rain or humidity, and I thought there would be people there enjoying ice cream.  But maybe they had gotten there before us, or arrived later.

Will we return? Probably, but not before trying out ice cream places in the Valley, Milford, and beyond.


(Note: I posted this yesterday on the New Haven Register's View from the Valley blog)

Life is busy, but that's good

It's good because there is less time to dwell on that danged diagnosis of breast cancer I got last year.

My latest news is I'm going to be part of a new cancer survivorship program at the hospital. And it sounds like it's all free of charge.
I'm looking forward to participating, and of course writing about my experiences. 

 
I have been doing a lot of bloggin', but not here. I've been working on the View from the Valley blog for my job at the New Haven Register.
This morning I wrote a post about love and romance and all the stuff that makes life worth living.

My latest thing is checking the blog stats several times a day. The page views have been increasing! Yay!

Page views equal job security, I think.

If you get a chance, could you please give me a click?  

Thanks in advance.

No time left for bloggin'

Darned FB. Takes up my recreational computer-use time.

I love blogging and visiting but haven't kept up with it. What's a woman to do? Win the lottery and stay home and blog to my heart's content.

Barring that, I guess I just have to cut back on FB and a certain couple of games I play that become addicting.

 ~

In other news,  I'm not a big pierogi fan, but I found a new frozen variety - filled with potato, spinach and feta cheese - and sauteed them last night. I added some shrimp sauteed in garlic, as the package recommended.
It sounds weird but it was tasty. We all liked it. Had spring greens with oil and vinegar on the side. A fairly healthy meal, I suppose.

This morning I met an adorable 13-year old girl who won an essay contest and is traveling out of state with her parents to be honored next week.

I'm about to write a story about her. It's so nice to meet good kids.

Last week I wrote about four high school students who took first place in a regional Junior Achievement contest, beating out 15 other schools that are in much more affluent towns than ours. woo hoo!

I also wrote about a group of fourth through sixth graders in a character counts club who worked on a mural about the pillars of character that now graces the school corridor.

It's great to be able to write about the good kids who are doing good things!

I'm happy it's March

That means spring is just around the corner.

When in doubt about what to post, I will henceforth write about the weather and the changing seasons!

I can't get into any trouble that way.

This was the scene this morning in our front yard.

Looks promising, doesn't it?

Still doing OK with the radiation

I haven't been true to myself ~ I've not been blogging about my cancer journey on a daily basis.

If I don't write about it now, where will I get the info for that upcoming book? 

This week is flying along..between work and tending three farms, I've been quite busy.

Nothing new to report health-wise. This morning after treatment I'll probably see the doctor. 

She can check my "tan lines."

Oh, and my hair continues to grow...very s-l-o-w-l-y...

Happy December to all!

A Yuletide re-post from 2008

I posted a series of vintage Christmas cards two years ago, and thought I would share one today. I have nothing about which to write..at least nothing fun!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Vintage Yuletide ~ Part 2

This would have been perfect for a Ruby Tuesday post, but I didn't take the photo, or illustrate the vintage Christmas card.
So maybe not.

I could make up a story about this character. Let's see...There once was an angel named Ruby, and one Tuesday she filled up her car with beautiful blue flowers to offer to anyone who needed some holiday cheer (of the floral variety).

Who knew angels drove?

Anyway, Ruby spent all day Tuesday driving her red car around the countryside, giving flowers and spreading Yuletide joy to all who she encountered along the dirt road.

The End.

Hi ~

I've been away from blogland for what seems like a long time. Needed a break from computer play time, I suppose. I'm at the computer for work for many hours a day, and sometimes you just gotta say enough is enough and walk away.

At least I do!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Ruby Tuesday ~ gnomes and babies

This is a continuation of last week's Ruby Tuesday story about my injured gnomes. I forgot to put this gnome in the photo too. He lost a leg a few winters ago to the snow thrower.

I took this photo in the dark as an experiment. 'Night mode' worked.

And this is baby Cameron and me at a family get-together in '91. He's 6 foot-3 now.

That's one of his aunts trying to touch his chubby leg.

See that? Ralph isn't the only one who can dig into our family photo archives to come up with a photo for blog posting! I feel empowered.

Like this Ruby Tuesday badge? I do! I feel healthier just looking at it.

Leora W., author of Here in HP, is a talented artist, web site designer and developer who created the badge a while ago. She offered it up for the taking. So I finally took it! Thanks, Leora.

See many more photos with a little or a lot of red in them at Mary T's Work of the Poet.

The joke's on me

I just figured out how to put a photo in my blog header. See above. ^

Not only am I a late bloomer, apparently I'm a slow learner.

Santa Claus visited our house early ~

When I was busy working yesterday, Santa snuck into the house. Ho Ho Ho

Much to my delight that Jolly Old Elf (or was it Airhead 55?) brought with him just what I wanted: a new Canon point-and-shoot camera to replace the one that died Sunday.

The panic is over. I mean, what self-respecting blogger can properly blog without a digital camera at hand?

I am back to taking photos of anything and everything and posting them.

Is it better this way, or that way?

I've not been blogging or visiting much, but not because I don't wanna.

Often my eyes are really hurting me at the end of the work day. They feel strained.

Last week I got a new lens with a stronger prescription for my right eye, which doesn't seem to work too well without the left one helping it along these days.

The optometrist gave me two fancy tests that I had never had before and he said all was clear, as was the annual glaucoma "puff" test. So that was good news.

But they still bother me. (cue the violins).

I suppose I should take eye breaks during the day. Something else to remember!

Back to quack

In our household we use the word 'quack' for any monosyllable - it works like a charm, or a quack.

I'm back after an unplanned blogcation (that's blog + vacation for you non-blog speakers, as Queen Mimi says!).

I found a photo to share for Ruby Tuesday, but now that I've edited it I don't know how to save it on the new photo software.

Now I must wait for tech help to wake up...

I just peeked at my Facebook account, and I have 54 notifications. Lot of catching up to do around here.

Sunday morning thoughts

OK, so it's not quite 7:30 a.m. Sunday and I've already brewed the coffee, with a snitch of cinnamon, cooked the turkey bacon without burning it, and now I'm starting the pancakes.

We're heading to church later, and then I hope we can find something more fun than laundry and dishes and cleaning to do when we get home at 11:30.

*I'm using this blog post as if it were a status update on Facebook. That FB makes me a bit crazy, because there is so much to read and do, and I don't really understand the games and gifts and all. So I've been taking a break from it this week. No offense to any of my Facebook friends. I'm sure I will be back soon.

We have a new monitor and the computer will be here soon

We have a 19-inch monitor as of yesterday. Now I'm actually glad the other computer gave up the ghost two weeks ago. This is a nice new toy for me and Ralph. Photos look great on it.
And this new Apple keyboard has such a light touch. It's almost effortless.

Woo hoo!

I seem to have lost my blog groove...

and I really need to play catch-up.

I love blogging, but I couldn't find the time or energy this week. The only blogging I did was taking part in two fun photo memes, Ruby Tuesday and Looking at the Sky.

My thanks to Mary T and Tisha, for without their inspiration and meme-hosting, I would really be at loose ends.

Maybe I should blame my funk on the MURK, which is how I describe the gloomy, clammy weather we've been having around here. I sure hope it goes away soon.

I wish everyone a wonderful, murk-free weekend ~

Ya gotta have friends ...

Mary T, The Teach, at Work of the Poet, presented me with this lovely award today. I was most surprised, but happy to read she considers my blog charming and friend-oriented.

Mary hosts three memes: Ruby Tuesday, Sepia Scenes, and Window Views. I honestly don't know where she finds the time.
I've met many great people here in the blogosphere, and have even met two of them in person. It just seems like there is not enough time in the day to visit all the folks I would like to visit.

Thanks, Mary, you made my day today. ;-)

Mary wrote:
The following rules came with this "Friends" prize:
“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I could easily come up with more than eight people, but here are the bloggie friends I'm recognizing:
Linda, Bee, Mimi, (royalty all) Bond, Roger, Lynn, Joan and Michele, great bloggers all.

Life can get in the way of blogging, can't it?

I've been out of the blogospheric loop and now I'm trying to get back in after several days of not visiting folks, for a variety of reasons.
One thing I re-learned this past week is to never take my health for granted. I'm blessed with good health so when something isn't quite right, it takes me by surprise.
That's how I felt this week. No need to go into detail, but I'm feeling better each day.

I did manage to post entries for Ruby Tuesday and Sepia Scenes, hosted by Mary T, The Teach, as well as for Creative Photography hosted by Roger, and Looking at the Sky on Friday, hosted by Tisha, because I really enjoy participating.
I haven't visited those kind folks who have commented on my entries, and I apologize. I hope to catch up with people today and tomorrow.

Linking to a friend's blog today ~

Last week I wrote a story for the newspaper about high school students raising money for the local animal shelter, and today one of my editors reprinted it here on Tesla's Love, her blog about animals and why we love them. Last I knew she is taking submissions, if anyone is interested in writing about their pets.


Behind the scenes: while the photographer and I were there at the school Dixie, the dog in the photo, peed on the carpet. Poor thing was nervous, she was getting so much attention. Fortunately that is all she did. ;-)

Friday fun with a Sunday comic

Saw this in last Sunday's paper ...