My Thirteen Favorite Photos from our sailing vacation. 1. Griffen and Nemo peeking into the cabin from the cockpit. I have a zillion pictures like this, but it never gets old. 2. Todd on deck at sunset on Shelter Island, NY. We just spent the day exploring the island and were so very happy. 3. Beej and Griffen in the cockpit waiting out the rain on Shelter Island. 4. Sailboats at dock in Old Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT. 5. Beej in the electric car on Shelter Island. It only went 25 mph, and was a blast anyway. 6. The bridges for I-95 crossing the Thames River between New London and Groton CT. 7. Our hitchhiker who caught a ride with us on the way to Noank, CT. Todd named him Franklin. Franklin rested his wings with us for about an hour. 8. Krystian and Maggie in the scooters at Fort Adams in Newport, RI. 9. Krystian helping Maggie take in the head sail. 10. Todd teaching Maggie how to raise the main sail. 11. Beej at the spot on the Thames River where we beached the canoe when we went to Mohegan Sun Casino. 12. Todd and Griffen swimming in New London. 13. Nemo dozing in the cockpit. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thirteen Things I would Like to do This Summer 1. Scuba dive at least once per week. Todd and I like to go on night dives after work, so hopefully this one won’t be too much of a stretch. 2. We have put in for our vacation days, and if all goes well we will be on the water for roughly 16 days. We haven’t yet decided if we will sail up the coast to Maine, or if we will putter around Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island and Long Island sound. 3. Every day when I go out for lunch I pass a surf shop. One of these days I will stop in and inquire about surfing lessons. You know, because I need 1 more hobby. 4. Sail to Block Island for a weekend. We didn’t go to Block at all last summer, and we both love to sail there. 5. Live aboard our boat to the point where we only come back to the house to do our laundry. If all goes well we will move aboard this weekend, and then I might just have the cable TV shut off for the summer, and save us some money as well. 6. Remember to use sun screen every time I will be outside. I do use a body lotion that has sun protection in it, but I would like to be better at remembering to put on the sunblock too. 7. Ride around with the top down on the Jeep. Right now the temps are in the 50’s and 60’s, so it’s too cold for me. But I love nothing more than riding around with the top down, and sometimes with the doors off too. 8. Keep up with my jogging. It’s my goal to get my pedometer up to 2000 miles buy the end of the year. Right now I am at 1566, so I have a few more miles to go. 9. Go on a weekend canoeing and camping trip. Similar to the one on the CT River that I’ve been writing installments on. But shorter than that. 10. Spend a day with Todd while he’s flying his kites, and I am sitting on a blanket reading or playing my guitar. I love those days. 11. Take the dogs hiking somewhere that they will get so muddy I will have to hose them off when we get back. (Or just throw them into a body of water, that’ll do too.) 12. Take our friends on night sails during the week. Night sailing is great because most other sailors are at home in the beds. Not us. We own the bay when we are out there at night. 13. Learn how to sail our boat by myself. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thirteen Things you need to know how to say if you are ever in Poland. I've been to Poland three times, and found these phrases to be useful, if not necessary for getting around. Please feel free to try them out with the phonetic spellings I've written out for you. Make sure you roll your r's when you try these out. 1. Good day: jean dub reh 2. Good night: dub raw nuts 3. Where is your bathroom: jeh yest foy voo stamp poo? 4. Thank you: jan koo yeh 5. May I have a beer: muh zhem dust autch pee vah? 6. I would like to go to the airport: yah ksem each duh luht nee skuh 7. They stole my money: uh nee ooh krad ly moy peen yun zih 8. Do you come here often: chen stuh tih psih hujd jeesh? 9. Where can I buy pretty shoes: jeh yah musz nah coop each pyenk nyeh boot ih? 10. Do you speak English: chih tih moviesh pawn gehl skoo? 11. What?: tsuh? 12. You look hot: tih vih glun dahsh soo per 13. Where is Agnes’s house: jeh aug nyeh shka myeh shka? (Equivalent to the Donde esta casa de Pepe phrase that we all learn in high school Spanish.) Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thirteen Foods that I Hate. 1. Onions. Mom actually used to puree them into things so my brother and I wouldn’t notice. 2. Peppers. My aunt got me to eat them on a pizza when I was a little kid by telling me that they were green apple. Then I hoarked them up. Don’t lie to me. Let me make my choice based on what’s available. Not cool, Auntie. 3. Tomatoes. Mom used to make tomato and onion salad with dinner. I hated this stuff so much. Dad didn’t eat dinner with us that much, as he worked all the time. Mom used to feed us then pack up a dinner for him and drag us all out to the shop so he could eat too. So Dad didn’t really know what I ate. There was one night when he was home for dinner, and he plopped some tomato and onion salad on my plate and demanded I eat it. I told him I didn’t like it. But he just figured that I was a little kid who said she didn’t like things when she hadn’t tried them. So he shoveled a forkful into my mouth, and then he got to see it all again. Tomato sauce is OK. Ketchup is also OK. Whole tomatoes, not OK. Big chunks of tomato in my sauce, not OK. 4. Eggplant. When Todd and I just started going out I was still a vegetarian. So he was making the only veggie thing he knew how to make, eggplant parmesan. He even had his Mom on the phone as he was cooking, so she could tell him how to make it. I choked the whole thing down “Honey, this is great! Thank you for making this.” Fast forward 5 years later. We just bought our house and we were having dinner with my brother and his family at the joint up the street. Todd asked “Beej, why don’t you get eggplant parm, you haven’t had that in ages.” I told him I didn’t really feel like eggplant parm. I caught my brother’s eye, because I know he doesn’t like it either, then Todd asked “Do you even like eggplant?” It finally came out that I hate it, but I was a good sport when he made it and I choked it all down. He was so sweet to make it for me. 5. Beef. I am a recovering vegetarian. I eat some seafood, poultry though. Beef grosses me out. Sometimes I’ll taste it when Todd has some that he says is good. But then I get grossed out at how long it takes me to chew it. 6. Pork. Though I think I ate some when I was drunk at my Dad’s wedding. 7. Pickled herring. Or anything pickled for that matter. My Dad used to eat pickled herring and it used to make the house stink. I think it’s because I don’t like vinegar. I think pickles are beyond gross. Blah! 8. Salmon. I wish I liked it, because it’s good for you. But I really just don’t. 9. Lobster. I wish I liked this too because I can catch them when I dive and have a free lobster dinner. No dice. 10. Sushi. Todd and I go to Sushi-Go in Newport quite often, again, I wish I liked it. We made friends with the manager and owner and they don’t care if I bring soup from Panera in there. I did try a bunch of different kinds one afternoon when it was slow in the sushi shop. I tried snapper, eel, and something else I can’t remember. I didn’t like any of them. Eel was almost palatable, but, no. I often get asked “Why not get a California roll? You like shrimp.” Ah, but I don’t like COLD shrimp, and I don’t like avocado either. 11. Swiss cheese. Yuck. 12. Cold shrimp. Hate shrimp cocktail. Hate it! 13. Salsa. Kind of. I’ll dip my chip in the salsa and shake off the chunks, so I can have salsa juice on my chip. If the salsa is too finely pureed, then I have too many little chunks on there, so that’s no good. So, the moral of the story is I am nightmare to order pizza with. What foods do you hate? Links to other Thursday Thirteens!1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Thirteen adventures Beej would like to go on Looky Looky! My first Thursday 13! 1. African Safari 2. Scuba diving in Belize. 3. Climb to the top of some very tall mountain. Not exactly Everest, per se, but some ridiculously tall one, like Rainier. 4. Canoe the entire length of the Connecticut River, from it's source in Canada, all the way between New Hampshire and Vermont, through Massachusetts, to end in Long Island Sound on the Connecticut coast. 5. Sail through the Panama Canal. 6. Visit Alaska during the Summer Solstice. 7. Hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. 8. Visit the pyramids in Egypt. 9. See penguins in their natural habitat in Antarctica. 10. Walk on the Great Wall of China. 11. Hike the Appalachian Trail. 12. Sail the South Pacific. 13. Learn to surf in Hawaii. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants