HEARTFELT NOTES

I thought I'd share some of the notes on the birthday card I received from all my coworkers. They gave it to me during a surprise breakfast for my "51st birthday". No, I'm not 51! But maybe I should start saying I'm 51 so that people will think I look great for my age. Or maybe they are saying that I look 51. Geesh, I hope not. Anyway...these notes on my card were very meaningful.

"I miss you! Oprah!"

"HAPPY DAY MY CHILD - Pope Benedict"

"You better count your money when you're sittin' at the table...Kenny Rogers"

"Which one are you? - Matthew"

TITF #1

Today I'm Thankful For:
BUBBLE BATHS

I know many of you can't stand baths but I love
a nice, long, warm, bubble bath!

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY CARD

This card also came with Birthday Fly Paper.
Now that's priceless!

(For those who care, I ended yesterday
with a dessert called "Chocolate Insanity".)

MONKEY CLOWNS MAKE ME LAUGH

(Since this blog is about things that make
me smile, I will be posting some of my
birthday cards for the next few days.)

I started off the day with an Iced Godiva Belgium Coffee! Can't beat that!

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

A friend (and office-mate for 3 years) and her 5-year old son (I'll call him Squirt) came to visit me yesterday. Thankfully the rain stayed away which enabled us to have a wonderful time and a delicious lunch on our roof-top deck.

Since this was the first time they had been to our new condo, I was amazed, once again, by a phenomenon that I've noticed many times before. Squirt had never been to our house, didn't know the layout of our place, was dwarfed by everything. However when I opened the door, he walked straight in, across the living room, directly to Johnnyrectomy - the stuffed monkey who sits on our recumbent bike. (If you don't know about Johnnyrectomy - - I guess that's a post for another day.) HOW did he know to go there without missing a step, without hesitating for a moment, without having a clue where anything else was located?

He played with Johnnyrectomy for a minute then turned and beelined directly to the Jenga game on our bookshelf, pulled it out, and began building his house with the "blocks". How did he know where the "blocks" were? It's not like he stood there for a moment and looked around the room. The only amount of time he had so far in our house was spent focusing on the monkey. Do kids have some kind of radar that points them to kid stuff in a room full of grown-up stuff? This has happened many times in the past when we've had children to our home. It's like they instinctively know EXACTLY where the fun stuff is and walk immediately to it. It's not like I can walk into a room and automatically zone in on wedding albums or Broadway CD's! How do they do it?

Since Squirt did "find" most of the toys in our house, including another stuffed monkey and a service bell I used in my classroom, it made me start thinking...

Most of you know that I'm somewhat of a kid at heart and keep items around my house that one typically wouldn't think would be in a home that doesn't have children. I've always agreed with the quote, "Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing" by Oliver Wendell Holmes. So if there are things that make me laugh or games I like to play, then I'm definitely going to have them in my home. And if people think that strange, so be it. That is something that will probably never change. More than likely, when I'm 80 years old, I'll be sitting in a rocking chair with a stuffed monkey, watching The Muppet Movie (the original one...which is the best one) while putting together a Snow White puzzle. And I'll be smiling!

Eccellente!

Mr. PoMonkey and I visited the Festa Italiana yesterday afternoon. Little Italy is only a couple of blocks from our new place, so we had to take advantage of that! It was definitely one of the hotter days in Chicago, but we enjoyed everything...

• Fried Ravioli
• Waving to Tommy Lasorda as he rode by on a golf cart
• Cheese Pizza
• Counting the number of men wearing loafers and shorts
• Bocci Ball tournament
• Playing "Italian or Not" with Mr. PoMonkey
• Chocolate covered bananas
• Listening to Jack Miuccio sing Tom Jones' hits! (listen)
  
• Italian Ice by Carm's

Every time we drive down the street where Carm's is located, there's always a major roadblock and traffic jam caused by cars stopping and pulling off to the side (but not far enough off) for people to run in and grab a Carm's Italian Ice. NOW we understand why...it was excellent! I typically don't like Italian Ice because I don't like a strong lemon flavor. I just don't care for strong acidic products. If I ever have lemonade, I water it down. But this was just right...a hint of lemon and quite sweet. If you come visit us, we'll take you there!

(We also discovered a new place that we've added to our "Places to Visit" list...The Drum and Monkey. We'll keep you posted on that.)