Focused at Fifty

Colorful Ingredients! This is a great summer pasta salad which my Mom made throughout a good couple of decades of Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day festivities as well as the occasional family BBQ. It is a favorite recipe of my sister Sheryl's, too. It is a "Haynes go-to recipe". Can't decide what to make or bring? Make the shrimp salad recipe! LOL. You really can't go wrong with it. I like it because it is not too heavy and pretty refreshing. For my salad below, I doubled the recipe for a summer cocktail party I had hosted and ended up using a little bit more French dressing than called for but it still came out great. Instead of pimentos, I substituted chopped roasted red peppers. I also substituted an olive oil mayonnaise instead of Miracle Whip. If you want to use the medium canned shrimp or fresh frozen shrimp, you could do that as well. The canned shrimp is used for ease in preparation and it still tastes so good. Lastly, I used ch...

My sis and I do a lot together. Besides my brother Adam, she is my best friend. Back about 4 years ago, Sheryl and I found ourselves in NYC overnight. I was supposed to see friends and then share a hotel room with Sheryl. My plans fell through and I was so upset. My weekend was ruined. Being my big sis, Sheryl made sure the rest of the trip went great. We decided to bring our friend Elsa to a piano bar called the Duplex in the Village to listen to some music. We got there and it was sooo crowded. As luck would have it, two small tables opened up right next to the piano and we snatched them. We had such a great time that night with the singer on the piano turning out songs from the 70's, 80's, and 90's, keeping us entertained with jokes in between. What an incredible evening it was. The singer belted out Chicago's "Saturday in the Park".  I looked at Sheryl and Elsa and we all were singing along to it at the top of our lungs! I remember looking at my sister...

Happy 45th Birthday to myself!! It has been a rough week for various reasons. I wanted to put up a post for my birthday that was whimsical and fun. While going through a box from the attic, I found this paper out that I filled when I was 9 years old waay back in 1979 in ACE class (a creative class run by one of my favorite teachers, Mrs. Elaine Arbo) at Wenonah Elementary School. It was actually titled, "It's Neat to Be Me." You can't make that stuff up! I reference war and world peace a lot which I figured out was due to the Cold War deterioration in the 70's. I still want to be a billionaire but I don't think I'd give all my money away to the poor. I never became a surgeon, sorry Mom (looking up towards Heaven). LOL Some answers are so typically 70's such as the velour shirts that I liked, the TV show "Dallas", and liking disco. Actually I liked disco A LOT but was embarrassed to put it down so I said I liked rock ... and a little disco...

A couple weeks ago, the weekend of Mother's Day, I had to attend the funeral of a beloved fraternity brother from the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, Tim Reeves. I received an email from my other fraternity brother Kent, who informed me that Tim had passed from cancer that Tuesday and services would be held the following Saturday morning.  Best friends Tim and John H. Tim was 46, very private about his medical issue and had kept the gravity of the situation, for the most part, secret. Needless to say the email came as a shock. I had no hesitation when I emailed Kent back that I was rearranging my schedule so that I could make it. There was no question about it. I needed to attend and support Tim's family and my fraternity brothers who were close to him. I had met Tim when I went to Rutgers University. By the time I became a brother, he was no longer at Rutgers but still remained a brother for life coming to our events whenever he could....

Chevy Chevette Interior (photo from Galleryhip.com) I was driving my normal commute this morning and like every morning, I let my mind wander. Just looking over the pastures racing by, the Blue Mountain in the distance running parallel to the highway, a turkey vulture flying overhead, I glanced at my speedometer and then down at my emergency brake. A memory flashed into my mind and I laughed out loud. Back when I was five years old, I was riding with my Dad in our Chevy Chevette. I mentioned that car before, it's the one my big brother Adam crashed up whilst in college. LOL sorry Adam. :) Being that it was the 70's, I was riding up front (with my seat belt on) and not in the back in a child seat. Luckily, Dad and Mom were big on wearing the seat belt in the front but not in the back seat those days. We were speeding along one of the local highways, I think it was actually Route 130 in South Jersey. It's crazy how some memories are so vivid. I was looking around th...

I picked up this picture on Facebook the other day and just really connected with its message.  I had recently moved on from some people in my community. It felt good to move on and this message really solidified what I had felt. Outgrowing people around you is not only OK, but it's normal and healthy. You can't stay friends with everybody,for if you do, you don't grow, you end up stagnating. For years, I had tried to remain "Switzerland" and be FRIENDS with everyone. You know the basic history of Switzerland, remain peaceful and neutral. As history has shown us, sometimes it just isn't possible. You still get "overrun" and sometimes invaded. Or like Switzerland in WWII, you maintain armed neutrality and yet still are forced to make economic concessions to Germany. OK, that's enough history lesson for now. :-)  I tried to remain neutral. I wanted battling friends to figure things out for themselves but it didn't work out that way. I...

BLOGGERS NOTE: Below are some things I have done to be healthier and get into shape. I am by no means an expert so always consult with a doctor before starting a workout regiment. After some soul searching these last couple months, I finally got fed up with my weight and shape. For the last couple years, I had been losing weight, gaining it back, losing weight and gaining it back. Every season I would "plan" an event so I could work towards dropping a quick 10 pounds and feel good about myself. And the week after the event, I quickly began to gain it back. I needed a mental attitude change, something not superficial like an upcoming reunion but more meaningful and long term. I did some hard thinking about my life and health and decided that I needed to just be healthier overall. My stamina was zapped and energy levels were at an all time low. I also noticed I wasn't waking up as easily as I thought I should. I was always tired and drained. I began to develop some go...