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May Day

It’s May Day, not to be confused with Mayday. After another night of poor to little sleep, mayday is what my body is screaming. As for the new month, I’m amazed that after January took five years to get through, I’ve blinked and it’s now May. The last couple of months have passed in an utter blur. With every passing year, time seems to move faster and faster.

Today, people all over the world the world are celebrate May Day by dancing around a maypole, celebrating the impending start of summer. Here in Florida, we call it Thursday. We do not need to celebrate summer here, given our balmy year-round climate. We’d rather celebrate the end of rainy season or the end of hurricane season than the impending doom of record-high dew points and temperatures.

Anyway, I digress. As I think back on the two months I took off from the blog, I realized I’ve accomplished a lot. Firstly, I read voraciously. I’ll be posting all my reads from the last two months soon. Secondly, I started jumping rope. While I found out I’m not very good at it, I do enjoy it. Third, this accomplishment is mostly the Mayor’s; his A1C at his first follow-up with our endocrinologist was 5.7%. This is an amazing number for a type 1 diabetic. He’s doing amazing. Lastly, we hit our fundraising goal for PurpleStride.

Of course, I can’t leave today’s blog without mentioning that both my Florida Panthers and Minnesota Timberwolves got the job done last night. Both clubs closed out round one of the playoffs. The Panthers looked dominant last night, particularly in the third. As for the Timberwolves game, it started way too late for me.

2025 Goal Tracker:

  • Run a 5K: in training
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program: in progress
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations): I made it into February and haven’t buckled!
  • Top performer at work: on it!
  • Travel: working on it
  • Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
  • Read daily: in progress. I’m reading A Knight and a Spy 1413 (The Road to Agincourt – King’s Spy), by Simon Fairfax
  • Get out of debt: in progress
  • Financial independence: in progress

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

I have a couple, and I think of them often. I love Oscar Wilde’s quote, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” Moreover, Victor Hugo has two quotes that refer back to often. First, “even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” The second quote is, “It is nothing to die, it is frightful not to live.” I think the first is a poignant reminder that things will always get better, no matter how bleak things seem. The other Hugo quote and the Oscar Wilde quote are poignant reminders to live each day and enjoy the moment.

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Rainy Afternoon

It’s a rainy afternoon here in South Florida. Thankfully, the thunder and lightning have abated making it infinitely easier to hear on the phone. The rain can’t, however, dampen our spirits as we continue to ride the wave of the Panthers Stanley Cup win. I think all of us Panthers fans have been watching and rewatching clips from Monday night’s win since the game ended. There is something special about watching people achieve their dreams.

The parade is on Sunday and should be a marvelous time. First of all, there are few places prettier than Fort Lauderdale Beach. I love that strip of A1A. The hubby will be working, so it will be just the Mayor and myself. We’ll have to get there early since we’re parking near the parade route at a friend’s place. Hopefully, the weather cooperates and there’s no rain. Thankfully, the beautiful beach is there if we need to cool off for a minute. We’ll be wearing our swimsuits to the event.

Amazing photo taken by Juan Morales Monday night @

I’ve been hunting for Stanley Cup merchandise that isn’t an arm and a leg. I found the hats and t-shirts for the boys, but am still looking for a women’s version of the shirt. I hate paying for shipping so any site charging for it is out of the question. Hopefully, I can find what I’m looking for when I am out. Otherwise, I’ll be out of gas.

Off topic, but super important to me. One of my dearest aunts is in the hospital and not doing well. Please keep her, her son, my grandma, and our family in your prayers.

What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?

I’ve had some great meals and great desserts in my life, so it’s really hard to narrow it down. One of my favorites is the Kouign-Aman we ate in Normandy at the gite (think AirBnB) after traveling into Brittany to see Saint Malo.

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Twenty-Five

Twenty-five is how old my eldest son Jake turned today. What’s odd, however, is that I’m only 33. Somehow the math just isn’t mathing. I can’t believe twenty-five years have passed since this amazing person entered the world. My Hubby and I were just kids when he was born. Now, especially today and with his impending wedding, I’m feeling a bit old.

Twenty-five years ago there were no digital cameras and I hadn’t even purchased my first cell phone yet. My hubby was still rocking a pager. My parents had cellphones, but they were the size of bricks and you had to pay by the minute. I can’t believe how much has changed in our world since he was born. We’ve gone from an analog society to a fully digital society. New Star Wars movies no longer have the novelty that they did in 1999. Who wasn’t excited to see the Phantom Menace.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to celebrate the big birthday with Jake as he’s home in Tally. Fortunately, he’s coming down for the 4th, so we’ll celebrate him then. Meanwhile, we’ll watch the Panthers continue to choke in the Stanley Cup Finals. I’m not willing to get my hopes up at this point because the Cats will break my heart. No matter what, this team has been so fun to watch this season. I’m excited to see how their success will continue growing the Florida game.

Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

There are a couple of foods that bring me back to my childhood. Creamy cucumber salad is one of them. I used to love it when my great-grandma would make this with cucumbers straight from her garden or the farmer’s market. Pickles roll-ups, aka Minnesota sushi, are another food that transports me back to the 1980s.

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Torture

Oh, these playoffs are torture. The Panthers had a chance to lift the cup yesterday at home, but they blew it. What a ridiculous collapse!!!! The Cats came out flat and gave up yet another short-handed goal. Eventually, they found their game, but it was too little too late. I guess the good news is they found their game again. Hopefully, this energy will transfer into game six. I don’t think I (or my heart) handle the emotional stress of going to game seven. Pure torture!

I did end up nervously baking sugar cookies as I watched the game on mute. The puppies were picking up my nervous energy last night. Meanwhile, ESPN’s coverage of the cup has been abysmal (yawn) at best. I wish TNT had the broadcast rights because they do a much better job. They’re also much more evenhanded in how they talk about the teams and players. ESPN’s coverage is an embarrassment to the sport and the league. The boys lucked out and got to watch the game live at Amerant Arena.

Write about your first crush

It was so long ago, so I don’t remember their names.

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Bundle of Nerves

Boy oh boy am I a bundle of nerves today. You would think my boys were playing tonight and not the big boys. The Panthers must win one more game to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup. It would be infinitely cooler if they could do that tonight at home. Also, it would bring a lot of emotional relief for stressed-out hockey fans. Unfortunately, it also brings the end of hockey season, so I’m not sure what we’ll watch on TV now.

Luckily, the hubby and Mayor are headed to the game tonight. I wonder who will be beating the drum to open the game? Game one was the Dolphins head coach and Game two was Alonzo Mourning. It will be interesting to see who they bring out tonight. While my guys enjoy the amazing atmosphere of Amerant Arena, I’ll be baking my nerves away. Most likely, I’ll be making some more sugar cookies. They’re easy to bake even when distracted by hockey games.

What countries do you want to visit?

Where does one even start with this question? There are so many places that I’d like to visit. If I listed them all I’d be blogging for days. The shortlist would be Norway, the UK, Denmark, Italy, France, Finland, Peru and Iceland. Now back to being a bundle of nerves!

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Ambivalent

I’ve been a bit ambivalent about blogging lately. I enjoy writing, but life has become a bit mundane. While mundane often has negative connotations, I find it a bit refreshing. For the last twenty-five years, we’ve been moving at light speed all day every day. It’s nice to have some slow moments where we have little to nothing going on. I quite enjoy that our excitement as of late has come from the bird feeder.

It’s been magnificent having two teams in their respective league’s conference finals. Unfortunately, the Timberwolves were eliminated yesterday. Meanwhile, the Panthers now lead the series after beating the Rangers last night. Us hockey people are quite superstitious, so true to form I watched the game at home and went to bed after period one. The boys, however, went and watched the games at our friends’ house. One mustn’t mess with the mojo.

This weekend I’ll be busy baking. I’m making caramel rolls for Melody’s bridal shower on Sunday. I also found a delectable-looking cheesecake recipe that I want to try. Fortunately, the hubby is willing to take one for the team and try whatever cheesecake I may bake. Additionally, I got stuff to make cream cheese wontons. Last weekend I made some pork sausage wontons that were a big hit. Hopefully, the cream cheese wontons turn out just as good.

How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

I know I need to unplug daily to keep myself mentally sane. I do that by putting my phone away at least an hour before bed. Once the phone is up, I get snuggled up in my bed with Anakin, his ducks, and a good book. I usually read until I can’t keep my eye open anymore. It’s the perfect way to unplug and unwind from the day.

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Nervous Baking

A couple of months ago, I introduced you to rage baking and now let me introduce you to nervous baking. Since the Panthers have lost every game I’ve watched at our friends’ house, I decided to stay home like I did in game one since they won that game. Consequently, I decided to put my nervous energy to work by baking some cookies.

My go-to cookie lately has been the sugar cookie. It’s quick and easy to make. Also, they have fewer calories than a chocolate chip cookie. By the time the cookies came out, the Panthers were already down a goal. It was time to feed the dogs and head to bed. I read my book for a while before falling asleep in it. I woke up around 11:30 and saw the hubby on his phone. I was happy to learn that both the Panthers and Timberwolves had won their games. Consequently, I’ll be nervous baking for game five on Thursday.

What jobs have you had?

I’ve had several jobs over the years none as big as being a mom. I really couldn’t care less about the jobs I’ve had as I don’t derive joy from employment. I’d prefer to retire like yesterday.

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Four Day

I’m so excited about my four-day weekend that I can barely stand it. Work has not been the best place to be this week, so I’m looking forward to a nice, long weekend. Fortunately, I have no plans outside of watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Timberwolves in the NBA playoffs. Outside of watching the playoffs, I plan on watching Netflix and chilling on the couch.

Speaking for four days, I have four days left on my four-week Apple Fitness + plan. I missed a couple of workouts yesterday and today due to a pinched nerve in my shoulder. I also had to cut my spin class short due to sharp knee pain, which was great. Outside of the last few days, the plan has been working fantastically. The yoga and Pilates are helping quite a bit. I love lighting some incense or palo santo for my practice.

The fitness plan ends on Sunday, so I’ll be starting a new one. One thing I don’t love about the plan is its lack of flexibility to change or move workouts once set. Consequently, I’ll be setting a weekly plan from here out. This way I can make sure the plan aligns with my schedule. Otherwise, managing the plan and my schedule is a bit stressful.

What personal belongings do you hold most dear?

The personal belongings I treasure most are the picture books I’ve made over the years. I made books for each of our Utah trips. When the boys are older and have their own place, I’ll make sure they each have a copy. One of my favorite Utah books is the book I made for Jake and I of our trip through the Mighty Five. It’s nice, thick, and great documentation of an epic trip across southern Utah.

Perhaps my favorite book is the cookbook I’ve made for my family. I compiled all the family recipes and put them into a beautiful book with family photos. Each of the grandkids will get one when they get married. It’s beautiful! Also, I’ve made some of the recipes so many times that the recipes are no longer legible. With the book, I can now easily read all of the recipes.

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Consistently Inconsistent

I’ve got to admit I’ve been consistently inconsistent in maintaining the blog over the past twelve months. It’s not for a lack of trying, I assure you.  Rather it’s a function of pure exhaustion and competing priorities.  As May winds down and we approach the end of school, I’m looking forward to the relief that the start of summer begins.  Our schedules slow down and life becomes somewhat calm and balanced.  Of course, calm and balanced in a house of three boys probably doesn’t fit most people’s definition of calm and balanced.if-you-could-ywky2o

Since the corporate run, I’ve continued to train using the Couch to 5K app to gradually increase my mileage and running time.  Due to the May heat, most of my training has been inside on the treadmill.  Fortunately, my AirPods and closed captioned episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm have carried me through the nine weeks of training.  Last week, Jake and I ran a 5k in Delray.  I’m still slow, but was still managed to take two minutes of my time from the corporate run.

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For the past week, the weather here has dried out considerably, so the Mayor and I have been running in the evenings.  It’s significantly more difficult to run outside versus the treadmill, but it feels great.  There’s nothing better then running with my boys and our little Piggie.  Athena has transitioned back to running quite well.  Although much like mom, she’s also out of shape.  Since Maya’s cancer scare, we’ve been reticent to take her out running in the heat.  After a course of antibiotics and some CBD oil and CBD treats from Honest Paws, Maya is doing amazing.

Tomorrow Jake, the Mayor and myself will run another 5k.  Since the summer heat is here, the run will kick off at 7:00 am.  Undoubtedly, I’ll be lamenting my decision to run when I have to wake up tomorrow at 5:15 am.   Of course afterwards I’ll feel much better and be happy with my decision, but getting out of bed is going to suck.

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Today we’re laying low in anticipation of running tomorrow morning.  Fortunately, I was able to meet up with my dear friend Jessica last night in Palm Beach.   I met her this year on Momcation 2.0 (Cayman Island edition) and we hit it off right away.  We had some fabulous drinks, food, conversation and laughs.  It was an awesome night.  I’ll write more on the beauty that is Momcation in a different post later.

We are, of course, like most hockey families counting down to the start of tomorrow night’s Stanley Cup Finals.  It’s lamentable that we’ve had to go so long without hockey at nights.   I’ve tried to catch as much as the World games (Go Finland!,) but it’s tough when you don’t have the channels playing the games.  Nonetheless, tomorrow hockey returns and we cannot wait. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Bruins come out tomorrow after  quite a bit of downtime.  On the other hand, I’m curious to see how the Blues’ rooking goaltender Bennington is going to handle the pressure.  Should be awesome!  Who are you cheering for?
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Continue reading → Consistently Inconsistent

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Already?

Already?  Really weekend just like that you’re over.  It seems like just five minutes ago it was 6:00 pm on a Friday night and the work week was behind us.. Yet here we are, nary a blink the eye has gone by, back to Sunday night and the beginning of another work week.  Although we accomplished as lot this weekend, it feels like we made no progress. I could definitely use a third weekend day to make me more productive around the house.

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In exciting news, we continue to add-on to our new tank.  In case you missed it, we’ve installed a 120 gallon saltwater aquarium in our living room and our remodeling the room accordingly.   Saturday we added a kole tang, macro algae for the refugium and a couple of coral frags.   Thankfully, the new creatures are acclimating to the tank very well.  Both the frog spawn and green star polyp corals have opened up, which is exciting.  They’re small frags, so we’re anxious for them to grow and cover more of the rocks.

Goalielocks is leading the project for the aquarium as he is the marine expert in the household.  We’ve had several freshwater aquariums and a nano saltwater tank before, but this is still a major undertaking.  Maintaining a saltwater tank is a lot more complex than maintaining a freshwater system.  Nonetheless, Goalielocks is well prepared.  Moreover, the tank is really starting to take shape and look great.  We’re anxiously waiting for our paired clownfish to host in the anemone, but they’re taking their sweet time.

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In other news, playoff hockey continues to be great.  The games have been high-octane and thoroughly entertaining.  Tonight the Vegas Knights, the first expansion team to reach the finals, won the Western Conference title and are advancing to the Stanley Cup. Not for nothing, but the Florida Panthers’ missteps clearly had a positive impact not he Knights.  After all, it was not too long ago that the Cats fired Gerard Gallant (huge mistake) and sent him packing in a taxi.  Then they dealt both Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault away as part of the expansion draft.  Along with Lars William Karlsson, these two gents make up the Knight’s lethal top line.  Needless to say, they’ve had a pretty good season.

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Tomorrow night the action will be back in D.C. as the Caps take on the Lightning in a must win game.  The puck drops at 8:00 pm, so I am assured another late night.  With the adrenaline of playoff hockey, who can sleep right after a game ends? I know I can’t.  It would be nice to have a Florida team in the Stanley Cup Finals, but I’ wouldn’t be disappointed if the series went to seven games.  I know, I know I’m a little greedy, but the hockey has been outstanding and I don’t want it to end.

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In non-hockey news, I have to wish my Great Grandma Brown a very happy 102nd birthday.  You read that right, she’s 102 years old. For context, when she was born we were two years into World War 1.   When I think of all the changes she has witnessed in her lifetime I’m astounded.  I can’t fathom how much our world has changed in the 102 years she’s been on this earth.  It’s an incredible thought.   Moreover, she still lives independently with her little dog.  I hope I got her genes.  Please join me in wishing her a very happy 102nd birthday.

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I had thought about going back to the daily prompt and writing about narcissism tonight, but I just didn’t have it in me tonight.  I thought hockey, saltwater aquariums and my great grandma would be infinitely more interesting. I’ve written about narcissists before anyway and really don’t wish to give them anymore airplay.

Wow, almost forgot there was this huge wedding this weekend. I didn’t get up to watch it.   Don’t get me wrong, I like the pomp and circumstance, but I am not a morning person.  Later that day I watched the highlights on Hulu.  It looked like a beautiful event.  Of course, the single best picture of the day was of David Beckham.    Who else watched the wedding?  What did you guys think?

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