A Fahrvergnugen Visit to Orlando

Well, out of the ashes . . . Here is my new ride. I picked up my 2008 VW Rabbit on Friday night. It's a sweet ride. Much smoother than the Jeep! I swore I would NEVER get a new car. Never say never, eh? It is really nice. Actually the third Rabbit I have owned. Our first was in a 1976. This one has an iPod 'dock' in the center console. I got to use it on my trip to Orlando on Saturday. Adele and Mia head out west to begin the next semester at schools. It was fun getting together.

Gotta love that pink tree! Suits a Florida Christmas!

Luke kept licking my legs! He's so funny!

Guess where we went for lunch? Plenty of good food, and room for one piece of cheesecake to share . . .

Mia wanted to get a major change haircut. Isn't this "sassy?"

We love it!





After lunch Mia had a hair appointment. She wanted something different, shorter, easier to care for, especially when wearing those knit winter hats!

Another Day of Packing, with a fine Dinner Chaser

Some of my co-workers from the unit I work in at the credit union took me to dinner tonight. After a day of packing some more, taking a walk and turning in my E-ZPass tags, I was ready for it. And, for the first time, I didn't order Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp!!! I had a delicious pasta dish of angel hair with "grilled shrimp, fresh asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, oven roasted tomatoes and parmesan in a delicious garlic sauce" followed by Lemoncello Cream Torte, which consists of: "Layers of vanilla cake and lemon mascarpone cream topped with streusel and served with strawberries and whipped cream". Buuuuuurrrrrpppppp! I won't have to eat for the rest of the week!

Cheesecake Factory Birthday Bash

Tonight a group of us went to the Cheesecake Factory in Colonie Center to celebrate my ** Birthday which was earlier this week. Needless to say, I think we all left the place stuffed! Mary Ellen, our waitress was a great sport! Just before we left she told us that she had been off for three days and was not especially looking forward to getting back to work, but she said we made her night a lot of fun! It seemed like we were in the birthday room because even before our meal was served there were three different Happy Birthdays sung around us. When we got to the end of our meal, we were all too full to order cheesecake, but then thought of our adventure to NYC in April, when we had dinner at Carmine's in midtown and how everyone was too full for dessert there too. You'd never know it though by the way we all attacked the Titanic before the platter even hit the tablecloth! But tonight we resisted! At David's request, Mary Ellen assembled a group of "hot waiters" to sing Happy Birthday to me as she placed a mini hot fudge sundae in front of me. (NO COMMENT RUSSELL!!!) But alas, I left without even one phone number! Maybe next year........