I saw this chart on swissmiss today. Now I really really want to be French… (can you tell that I haven’t had a vacation in a while?)

My grandmother was a self professed Italian Princess. It is easy to believe when you think about it. Boy did she have a lot of clothes and shoes and jewelry and purses. I swear, she probably could have had a different outfit for every day of the year complete with accessories. Special accessories for holidays. In each picture she has her chin up and a stunning smile. She had a quick wit which was self deprecating as much as anything.

My grandmother was a self professed Italian Princess. It is easy to believe when you think about it. Boy did she have a lot of clothes and shoes and jewelry and purses. I swear, she probably could have had a different outfit for every day of the year complete with accessories. Special accessories for holidays. In each picture she has her chin up and a stunning smile. She had a quick wit which was self deprecating as much as anything.

Slowly but surely I am getting back into the swing of “normal” life. Saturday we went to Coney Island with M&M. What a fun day. After sleeping in M&I got on the F train and took it all the way to the end. It was a relatively short ride. We met up in front of Nathan’s and proceeded to gorge ourselves on hotdogs and fries topped with cheese and bacon and sauerkraut and chili in varying amounts. We decided it would have been foolish to try the Cyclone so soon after such a feast so we walked the boardwalk and beach for a while. Once we were sure we wouldn’t hurl we braved the Wonder Wheel. It looks to innocent from the ground, but don’t be fooled, it is terrifying. After that was the Cyclone. Wooden roller coasters are always the scariest. Just a little bar holding you in as you clack along the track. Terrific. We finished our time in Coney Island watching the Cyclones play the Staten Island Yankees. In the end we couldn’t figure out why we don’t go to Coney Island more often.

Yesterday my grandmother passed away. Although it was sudden, it was not entirely unexpected. She had been sick for a little while and she took a turn for the worse and it was over quickly. So quickly that I am left wishing there was one more moment with her. To tell her that I love her and that I appreciate her. I wish I could take her to lunch one more time. I wish I could bring her some fancy chocolate covered cherries I found and thought she would like. I wish I could talk to her once more and hear about her childhood in New York, her summers with her cousins on the farm. I wish I could have taken her to see the leaves change this fall. I wish I could hear her call me Miss Elizabeth one more time. Grammers, If you are reading this, I miss you already. Love, Crackers.

Or hardly working… I am not sure which. I got a new computer set up yesterday at work. I got a sweet new 15″ MacBook Pro and a 22″ monitor which allowed me to get rid of my cumbersome PC and Mac towers, KVM switch and dual monitors. Everyone is jealous, I can tell. The walk over and oooooo and aaaaaah. So I have spent some time playing around. Since I have a built in iSight I can finally play around with Photo booth.

My craft stash is a few ounces lighter already. I actually pulled out all of my jewelry making stuff (all that I could find readily) to make a few things for my sister and cousin. I am definitely rusty at making stuff but I finally pulled out some equipment that has been sitting collecting dust and used it. Pretty soon I will be cranking out pieces left and right. I have yet to start on my yarn stash, but one thing at a time.

M & I went to see the Simpsons Movie last night. We are Simpson’s fans from way back and we thought it was hilarious! Well done indeed. Today I decided to see what we would look like if we were a character on the Simposons with the help of the Simpsonize Me site. It takes some patience, but good things come to those who wait. Here is a picture of us in front of the Kwik-E-Mart.

Last night with box of tissues in hand, I finished Harry Potter. I am embarrassed to say that at certain points, I was crying so hard it was tough to read. Wonderful, just wonderful. I am just glad I was home for these sad bits instead of say, on the subway train or worse yet, reading at my desk on my lunch hour. Now I can try and get back to creating in my free time. I am working on something I think could be pretty special, but I don’t want to mention what it is just yet. You will be the first to know though.

I just found a website called Walk Score via Apartment Therapy. It is so cool. You type in an address and see all the amenities near and get a walkable score. Our place scored an 86 out of 100. While this isn’t terribly helpful now that we have lived here for a year and a half, I can see how it would be extremely helpful when checking out new neighborhoods and once you move finding where to find the hardware store.