I love long holiday weekends. There's nothing better than sleeping in on a Monday morning. What holiday is it you may ask? Why it's Victory Day and RI is one of the only states that celebrates it. I give up President's Day for this holiday...but I'd rather have a Monday off in the midst of summer vs. the middle of winter.

Today, I slept in until 8:30, woke up, popped on the Today show, had a cup of coffee and sat in bed with a little cat. It looked something like this....

on the to-do list for today...sit by the pool, plan some fall trips, and maybe I'll clean the house and make Mr. Allan dinner...

Speidi makes Anderson Cooper's Ridiculist

Who knew Anderson Cooper could be so funny.....on his show the other night he bashed Speidi...the dynamic duo of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. The couple I loved to hate and roll my eyes at from the MTV show The Hills. It's a pretty funny clip reposted from http://www.perezhilton.com/

A nice little beach vacation....

Here's a snap shot of our little vacation....every July since 2001, Mr. Allan and I have gone to Martha's Vineyard...a little island off the coast of Cape Cod, MA. It started off as a camping trip with 40 of our closest friends. Every year we'd start talking about the Vineyard trip..what we'd bring for the campsite, who would have the biggest tent, the best decorations etc. While I was a trooper and did camp for 8 of the 10 years we've been going....the last 2 years we've opted to rent a house vs. the camping. Mr. Allan is a little sad about this since he enjoys drinking a Bud Light Lime while he's sweaty from setting up the tent and tarps and stringing up the lights and assembling the electric palm tree...so we try to go to the campground often and hang out with our camping friends. Me...I'm not so sad about not camping, mostly because we do hang out with all our friends....but after 2 years with 2+ more nights of rain and sleeping in a tent..I just couldn't do it anymore. Even though Mr. Allan won't admit it....renting a house is SO much easier!

so...our week in pictures!

Here's Big Blue...aka our minivan. No, we don't have any children, yes, we drive a minivan. Did I swear I would never ever ever ever drive one, yes. In my defense, it was our little inheritance from my stepdad, Steve, and I will admit...it's pretty comfortable and handy. It's our 3rd car, so I only make moonlight appearances in it. His name is Big Blue and here he is packed and loaded with goodies, mostly alcohol and beach chairs, for the Vineyard.

Me on the ferry. We drive down to Woods Hole, MA, and put Big Blue on the ferry. It's about an hour ride to get there and I'm a no business reading my paper keep your running children away from me kind of gal while on the ferry.

everyone eagerly on the front of the ferry trying to catch a glimpse of Martha's Vineyard and not getting pooped on by a seagull

Mr. Allan's obligatory seagull portrait. There's one every year.

Hanging out on the deck since land was spotted and we'd be docking soon.

Our little rental home..

The cocoon hammock was pretty comfortable!

then we went on to what we do best.... Mr. Allan on his inflatable dragon with his kindle...and me relaxing next to him

Trying to sneak up on Mr. Allan

Vineyard views...

Aquinnah Lighthouse

Wish I was walking down this today!

Happy hour and dinner on the beach in Menemsha at sunset...one of my favorite nights of the trip!

the 3H club on the ferry

photographic proof that I drive the short bus..aka Big Blue...all loaded up after a night on the town..

ahhh...I miss it already!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

It's been a rough first half of the week....coming back from vacation, even though I didn't really do anything but sit on the beach, eat a lot, and drink copious amounts of Pinot Grigio...(just call me Ramona!) I could barely peel myself out of bed on Monday, yawned my way through Tuesday and am so glad it's already Wednesday...and time for What I'm Loving Wednesday with Jaime from http://www.littledaisymay.blogspot.com/.

So what am I loving this Wednesday???

One big item on my to do list before we went on vacation was to get some body moisturizer! I had a ton of almost empty bottles of some of my favorites...Fresh and Bliss...but was itching to try something new since I've been using those brands for a while. I hit up the LUSH store at the mall and found a ton of products I had to try...but the standout one is their Dream Cream. I love that all products at Lush are natural, hand made, and they try and strive to be eco friendly with their packaging. For more products you can go to http://www.lushusa.com/. I went on a little shopping spree there and have a bathroom full of Lush stuff right now!

I'm also loving that this show is back on Thursday...yeah I know most people cringe, hate that Italian Americans are portrayed this way, that Jersey isn't really like this...but aside from all that..it's pure trashy entertainment! Plus, RI's own Pauly D is part of the cast!

photo from http://www.realityaired.com/

I'm also loving this Essie color...Peach Daiquiri...I love that oranges are big this summer and if you don't want to take the full fledged orange nail polish look this is a great cross between a light pink and orange...

I'm also loving this stuff...Piz Buin sun moisturizing lotion. I buy it on ebay and amazon.com. You might think..sunblock is sunblock. I'm not a fan of the spray ons..I use them for Mr. Allan because we're applying sunscreen on his fair skin 5 times a day while we're at the beach. But, for me, I have a darker skin tone than him and want something that I can put on once and lasts all day. My co worker, M, recommended this to me. I think he found it while vacationing overseas and then again on ebay. It rubs in like a moisturizer, it isn't sticky or tacky, and it smells great. It's pricey....but I applied it once in the morning and maybe a second application if we were having a marathon beach day. If I don't put on sunscreen, I can get a little red. With this, no burns, no gross greasy nasty sunscreen feeling either!

Have a great week!

J Lo on Vanity Fair

I was quite shocked by this celebrity split..only because a mere 6 weeks prior, Marc Anthony was singing on American Idol as J Lo shimmied herself up and down his leg. They looked like they were enjoying themselves and not that trouble was brewing. Even though I was shocked...my sister is absolutely devastated as she has been a long standing J Lo fan since before the days of Bennifer.

A couple weeks post split announcement through a joint press release..J Lo is speaking in an article in the September issue of Vanity Fair.

J Lo reveals..."It’s not that I didn't love myself before. Sometimes we don't realize that we are compromising ourselves. To understand that a person is not good for you, or that that person is not treating you in the right way, or that he is not doing the right thing for himself – if I stay, then I am not doing the right thing for me. I love myself enough to walk away from that now. Sometimes it doesn’t work – and that's sad. But I remain an eternal optimist about love. I believe in love" and also goes on to say..."I will always respect Marc as a singer and performer. He will always be in our lives. He will always hold a special place in my heart as the father of my children. [As for me] I am positive, determined to move forward with my life, bring up my babies, and do the best job I can as a mother, entertainer, and person. I now look forward to new challenges. I feel strong."

Good Reads....

 a week at the beach meant a lot of reading..so what did I tackle as I sat sunning myself looking at the beautiful ocean in front of me?? Here's a snap shot of some of the books I've enjoyed this summer while on vacation!

Faking It by Elisa Lorello. This caught my eye because it has a tie to southern New England and it came up in my Amazon you read lots of chick-lit stuff suggestion list. I love the hint of New England and places that are mentioned. In a nutshell it's about a thirtysomething year old up tight writing professor who has her engagement called off, moves back near her hometown for work and an unlikely friendship with a male escort begins. I did enjoy this book. Was it the best thing I've read all summer, probably not, but the strange friendship between these two very different characters kept my interest peaked and it was a great book for the beach!

BossyPants by Tina Fey. So good. So funny. My friends who came to Martha's Vineyard are probably so sick of hearing me talk about the new term I learned from reading this hilarious book....crotch biscuits. A quick read that will surely entertain!

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. I read this author's first book, Commencement, and really really enjoyed it. Mostly because I went to school up in Western, MA, where the book was set and enjoyed the references to the 5 college area in and around Amherst and Northampton, MA. But....what I really love about both of Sullivan's books are the characters. She does an excellent job of creating these believable, likable characters...the ones where you keep reading because you feel like you know them and want to see how their stories pan out. Maine is about a family with many different colorful characters and what connects them all...the family home on the water in Maine. I enjoyed this book as much as I did with her novel, Commencement.

The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain. Let me just say, my dad is a history buff. I am not. If novels rehash historical events I usually roll my eyes and start skimming. A couple months ago I was talking to my dad on the phone. He was going on and on about this excellent book he read about World War II and a bombing of a plane and this fantastic survival story. In my head, I was thinking...totally not my cup of tea. A week later I was browsing on Amazon.com looking for some books and saw rave reviews about this story of a fighter plane that was shot down during World War II. I bought it, read it, and then thought..is this the book my dad mentioned that I so easily dismissed? Yes, indeed it was. That book was Unbroken by Lauren Hildebrand. You might be asking yourself..what does this have to do with the book pictured above called the Paris Wife? Well, when I started to read what this book was about...a novel about Hadley Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's wife, set during the period where he wrote some of his greatest novels...that same history..ewww...not my thing thought came into my little narrow mind again. So, I decided to give it a shot and really really enjoyed this book. I love the era...the 1920's...and that the book is written from Hadley Hemingway's point of view. It might not sound like something you may typically read...but surprise yourself!

Back from Vacation

catching up on work emails, voicemails, and tons of fires to be put out while I'm struggling through the post vacation Monday blues ....but still remembering what I spent the last week doing...it looked something like this...which is me, in a beach chair, with my kindle on my lap. So sad to be home but so happy to have spent a fabulous week in Martha's Vineyard...many vacation pictures will be posted soon!