A little progress

It's not much, but I've lost 3 lbs which takes my BMI from 27.98 to 27.43. Upper limit of 'normal ' weight BMI is 25.

Do you GoodSearch?

We've recently moved our home page from Google to GoodSearch, a search site that raises money for (at last count) 56,000 non profits. The only drawback I've found so far is that you have to reenter your chosen charity each time you start up. I usually stick with the group that brought me to GoodSearch in the first place, namely Beaver Creek Reserve, but if you're like Abe, you'll shop around and find a new charity everyday. You can also shop through the site at popular web retailers, like Amazon and Zappos; the latter donates 6% of sales initiated through GoodSearch to your charity. The way I see it, you can't lose by searching and shopping via GoodSearch.

Andrea's Quilt

 

We started sewing today!! Andrea was amazing. The rotary cutting is a little much for her right now, but she is catching on to the sewing machine quickly, and she definitely has her own design ideas! I have never sewn "in tandem" before (one person doing the foot pedal and the other guiding the fabric) and we were great! Except for one broken needle and a few mismatching squares that had to be taken apart and put back together, (just minor upsets in the life of a quilter!) we just hummed right along!

It was fun, and has inspired me to start my own quilting back up again. I found the cutest fabric this week at JoAnn's, so watch for further posts on a quilt for Conor and Theresa's baby!

Life Insurance: DENIED!

It appears that ING Life Insurance is a lot less sanguine about my life expectancy than I am. And really, you can see their point: after all, if I were to die, I'd just be dead, whereas they could be out $100G.
Here's the back story. When Dan and I were signing up for benefits last fall we decided it might be a good idea to carry some additional life insurance with the higher debt load we're carrying because of the mortgage on our new house. We figured out that we could buy the same amount of insurance with less money if we took out spouse life insurance policies rather than increasing the amount of our individual policies. We signed up for the programs knowing that 'proof of insurability would be required', but didn't give that much thought.
With one thing and another, we put off filing the insurability questionaire until a couple weeks ago. ING promptly responded by denying Dan's application for insurance for me. Seems that they don't think I'm a good risk until I am treatment free for 2 years - which would be May of 2009.
For now, we'll go without the additional insurance or, perhaps, shop around elsewhere. The additional amount we wanted to carry was a nice-to-have not a must-have. But the denial was a reminder of one important way cancer has changed my life: my health history is no longer a string of "No"s and "Never"s.
By the way, it's very likely that my request for insurnace on Dan will be approved. He had his health exam yesterday morning and he (thankfully) has no serious health problems - current or past.

This and that

Not much thinking power left at the end of this day so I'll just post some random notes:

• I'm taking 'on call' duty this week, which means carrying a pager; the wee hour calls are the worst; got one last night at 12:30. Called in ever so reluctantly and was told that our contractor in India was handling it...grrrrr. Had a hard time getting to sleep after that.
• Mose passed his driving exam today; I was very nervous this time and was so happy when he was successful. He drove to youth group on his own tonight and will take Abe to school tomorrow. One more step toward independence.
• We're having a lot of fun watching the geese in the green space. Two pair seem to have settled for the breeding season (see yesterday's post for a picture) but others come and go. A couple times today there were eleven grazing at the same time. Last year, the space was host to one pair and twelve goslings. I'm assuming some or all of these are from the same family. Not sure how all of that works in the goose world.
• Mom sprained her knee yesterday. She sounded pretty good when we talked today but worried about whether she'll be healed up enough to enjoy their trip to Florida late next month. Thankfully she didn't break any bones - perhaps the Fosamax is contributing to better bone health.
  

Financial Literacy

My dear friend, Rosemary, of the Women's Perspective, has been teaching Financial Literacy at a center in Bridgeport, CT for a number of years, and ever since I heard about the classes, I have dreamed of having the opportunity to do the same in Chicago. Unbeknownst to me, at Julia Center, a ministry to Spanish-speaking immigrants in the Westtown neighborhood of Chicago, it was Sister Beatrice's hope to offer financial education to the women involved the the programs there. When Women's Perspective obtained a grant from the Sommers Family Foundation for a pilot program in Chicago, both Sr. Beatrice and I saw a dream coming true! In February and March, I have been blessed to teach a Financial Literacy course at Julia Center. Tuesday was our last class for this session, and I was very moved as I handed out the completion certificates to the 13 women who finished the class. Now Julia Center is seeking funding for the program to continue next year.

Snow birds return

Messed up my order

I was all peeved with Pinetree Garden Seeds when I arrived home today and there still was no package from them. I had placed my order on March 5th and paid extra $ for 24-hour processing! Ready to call and complain, I found their email confirmation and immediately figured out what had gone wrong - there were no items listed! Somehow all the items in my cart were wiped out at the last moment without my noticing it.
I placed another order today...probably a better one than the first time around. Here's a sample of what I ordered.

White Easter!

Easter Sunrise Service at Montrose Beach, Chicago, IL, March 23, 2008

Every year a new adventure!! 15 souls braved the snow and cold for our annual bi-lingual, multicultural service! It wasn't really as bad as it looks, because it was actually not THAT cold and wasn't windy or raining. I'm on the right in the picture, Pastor Dave is in the middle. Pastor Edward and his wife Karla are next to me. There were 8 from the English-speaking congregation and 7 from the Spanish-speaking congregation. I'm not sure how many countries were represented, but at least: U.S., Honduras, Philippines, Puerto Rico.

Christ is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

Reality Check

This is my first experience with blogging, and when I expressed some hesitation about how "public" it feels, Sue said: "Oh, it's not really going to be that public, no one will actually READ it!" I laughed so hard! Nothing like a sister to rescue you from a sense of your own importance!

But then: why on earth even do it? Sue said one reason she is doing this is to overcome HER hesitations about expressing herself in writing. Scribbling my thoughts ad nauseum is no problem for me, so I suppose I am doing this to overcome my self-consciousness about having other people read what I've written. My fears: What if someone disagrees with me? Or criticizes me? What if I hurt or offend someone? Or get my facts wrong? What if I have nothing worth saying?

Well, since no one is going to read it, I guess I don't have to worry about what I say. I'll get the luxury of putting my stuff out there without actually having to be concerned with what people think. Maybe that will toughen my hide a bit!

Tapestry of Leadership

My heart has been troubled in recent weeks as the world has watched the stability of Kenya slide into chaos and violence. This evening, Dave and I watched an inspiring short documentary called "Tapestry of Leadership" which honors the work of 3 women in Kenya who are compassionate leaders devoted to making their communities safe and stable places where women and children can thrive, in spite of AIDS, poverty, and lack of access to money and political influence. This film, created by one of my favorite organizations, Women's Perspective, offers hope in a dark time. Check out a clip from the movie and their other activities at women's perspective

What would you have thought if you'd been there?

BMI and me

Amongst many things I'd like to do with this blog is use it as a motivational tool to lose some weight.
I fantasize about being as thin as I was when Dan and I first started going out 7 years ago but then get realistic. That took so much time and attention and discipline. I just don't think I have it in me anymore.
But I would like to get my BMI back into a healthy range which requires a lose of about 20 lbs.
Check out this handy BMI calculator (height and weight figures came with the code).

May we recommend Comfort Inn?

I'd love to stay in really really nice hotels when we travel but don't choose to spend our hard earned money that way when there are cheaper options. But I'm also not happy staying at the rock bottom places cuz they're often too grubby and creepy. We've stayed at Comfort Inn several times and have found them to be comfortable, clean and reasonable. Here's a ringing endorsement for the one in the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan. We enjoyed gobs of towels, lots of hot water, a pillowtop mattress, free breakfast (all carbs and nothing hot but enough to get us going in the morning) and a great location.

Sun Country Airlines - we like them!

We've heard good things about Sun Country from friends who fly a lot and now we can say we like them, too. Planes were clean, staff reasonably friendly (especially on the trip to JFK), tickets prices were the cheapest, breakfast sandwich was tasty and flying in and out of HHH was divine. They'll be my first choice from now for domestic flights (watch for their stock price to soar on this news as we fly about .34 times per year). They're locally owned too. Dan thinks I should look for a job there and I think he might be right.

So embarrassing!

Dan and I were so embarrassed to walk in the Hall of Human Origins and find ourselves represented there (see picture).

Subways: NYC vs London

Because I live in Baldwin WI population 2300 and shop in the suburbs of Saint Paul, I don't have much to do with subways on a day to day basis. But I can't imagine getting around here any other way.
Subways are easy because they're an abstraction; they're distilled so all that remains is the essence of getting from one place to another.
We used the Tube in London a lot when we were there in 2006. Here are a few points of comparison:
Pricing: NYC wins - $2 gets you anywhere anytime. I don't remember all the details about the London experience, but I remember not being able to ride before 9 in the morning and having to buy extended passes when we went to the Zoo.
Signs: London, hands down. Every stop and every train had large maps with the line laid out like a beaded strand. There was never any question where you were or where you were headed. In New York, it's easy to know where you are - I love the mosaic markers - but I find the descriptions to be cryptic. Plus I miss the 'Mind the Gap' warnings.
Cleanliness: a draw. How they keep either system reasonably clean is a mystery, but they do.
The feeling of safety: NYC; maybe because our London base was in the seedy neighborhood near King's Cross Station and maybe because one morning when we were going into the station we met people pouring out of it because of a security clearance and maybe because I was traveling there with two tweens and here with two adult men, I feel safer on the subway here.

Downtown

We spent Sunday 'downtown', in the lower end of Manhattan. Well, mostly. Dan and I spent a couple minutes under the Brooklyn Bridge because we missed our stop. We were following a map that didn't have enough detail and we knew something was wrong when the train went on a long fast curve. It didn't take us long to get turned back around. We picked up an official map with all the stops clearly marked, the first chance we had.

We attended Palm Sunday service at Trinity Church. A beautiful building and a beautiful service. The highlight was the Passion Story sung by five men. The low point was when Dan's phone rang during the service. The lady in front of us immediately checked to see if it was her phone and I very selfishly wished it was...but afraid not. We wanted to crawl under the pew!

We didn't stay for mass because Joe and Heather were meeting us. While we were waiting for them we strolled around Wall Street - saw where George Washington was sworn in as our first President and where Alexander Hamilton was buried.

We were staying dry despite the persistent drizzle so decided to take the ferry out to Liberty Island. I took some pictures but the windows on the boat were so filthy I doubt they'll turn out. We also took some fun shots on the island with Lady Liberty in the background.

Back on Manhattan, we ate tasty street vendor hot dogs (protecting them all the while from aggressive pigeons) and rambled up to South Street Seaport. We poked around there but it was mainly chain stores and rather grubby so I was happy to move on to Chinatown.

On the way we stopped at Strand Bookstore. What a great place to shop! It was clean and well organized.

No chain stores there but still plenty grubby which I expected. Everywhere you looked there were cheap watches and rip off handbags for sale. Add this to the list of things I have zero interest in. We ate at a really bad restaurant. I didn't order much; I sensed the food would be bad when the waiter brought tea in a dirty pot and motioned we were to drink it from our water glasses. Please! No nice handleless cups?!? The egg roll I had tasted like it was hatched last Easter and the soup was dirty broth with some shamefaced vegetables.

Do I sound all whiny and disappointed? I didn't feel that way at all. We had fun being together walking and talking and being places we've never been before.

We walked our feet off

We were all over the place yesterday. From JFK (of course) to Heather's apartment in Brooklyn, to our hotel room in Chelsea, to Chelsea Market, to Central Park (including the Dacotah apartments and Strawberry Fields). We walked all along 5th Avenue and down to the Empire State Building. The weather was perfect - partly sunny but no wind (until we reached the 86th floor) and maybe low 50s for temp. Everything has gone smoothly and Heather makes getting around in this crazy sprawling place seem like a breeze.
Today, we're going to Palm Sunday worship at Trinity Church. It's the oldest congregation in New York and is located near the World Trade Center site. So we'll spend time down there and then...who knows?

Where we're staying

Comfort Inn Chelsea (NY329)
18 West 25th Street , New York, NY, US, 10010 | Phone: (212) 645-3990 Fax: (212) 633-8952

Welcome to our blog

It's 3 o'clock in the morning. We leave for our flight to NYC in less than 1 hour. Look for posts from the Big Apple.