Still here, want to keep the account.

 Done, in June. Ten days, Rome, Florence, Italy.  Ate, ate, ate, and toured art museums, took great photos, soaked up the atmosphere. Easy to get around, friendly people. Would like to return for a month, maybe in early fall.

Done, just got back from two lovely weeks with the doggies, at a cabin only 30 minutes from my place. It felt like a different world. The boys had a fabulous time, playing in the water, running along the nearby trails. 

I'm going back there in the Fall. 

Not much to write here, but today I did it. I could feel my new citrine abundance ring glowing on my right hand as I purchased my year-long 649 subscription. It won't actually start for another 4-6 weeks, but then I'm sure the money will start rolling in.

You can't win if you don't buy a ticket, right? 

 I wanted to do this, but it was really hard when they just didn't want to do it. So instead, I sent flowers to the baby on her one-week anniversary. Nobody else did anything like that, and they really appreciated it.

Sometimes you've got to go with the flow, and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

  Done 5 June, it was a similar walk to the Wiggle-Waggle, for the same cause, so I  figure it counts. The pups walked a full 5K, pulling me all the way, so we all got quite the good workout. 

 I finally mailed off the change in beneficiary form on Thursday. I got it from Personnel more than a week before, but it seemed that a number of obstacles kept coming up--first I didn't have the full name and birthdate of the friend whom I wanted to name, and needed to think of a discreet way of asking. Then, I realized I needed to have a witness and, although I was tempted to just make up a name and signature (since hopefully this information won't be used for a long time and who would remember signing that anyway) I decided to do it properly just in case there was any hassle. I don't want B, the new beneficiary, to be given a hard time by Brother, who is no doubt certain that he would gain a lot of cash if anything happened to me.

The thing is, Brother hasn't bothered to return my phone calls in months, and we haven't seen each other in more than a year. My insurance amounts to 5X my yearly salary, and with what I earn now, that is a life-changing amount of cash. If someone kicked me that amount of money right now, I wouldn't be able to quit my job, but I could certainly pay off all my debts, including my mortgage, buy the small cottage I dream about, take a fabulous dream vacation, and still have lots of cash to put in the bank. B has been a great friend to me for the past 25 years and he and his wife just had a baby girl. They deserve that money way more than Brother does, and I am sure they would do something positive  with it, even something that would remember me well. 

Still, it was a little sad mailing off that form. Another connection severed with Brother, and he's completely oblivious as usual.

 Two days in Riyadh, and two hours in an abaya, were enough for me. The place is rich but the people are just Pashtuns with money. 

I did buy a Starbuck's coffee mug, though.

 Done, spent five days there, four in Jerusalem and one in Tel Aviv. Visited the West Bank, too. The whole place is surreal--way more developed than other parts of the region yet with this undercurrent of what can only be described as oppression. The government has convinced itself that it is justified in treating the Palestinians like crap in order to protect its "security."  Jerusalem is particularly tense, what with the wall and the Israeli settlement houses right in the middle of the Palestinian neighbourhoods. 

Tel Aviv is a different story. One of the people I met in Jerusalem told me that 60 per cent of Israelis were concerned about the future of their country. I thought that the other 40 per cent must be smoking crack, but then I visited Miami on the Med, and realized that over a third of the Israeli population lives there. Go figure.

Still, the airport security officials were particularly concerned about the books in my suitcase on the way out. Seems that they do not like you to receive printed material from the Palestinian side. Luckily, I hadn't, since I didn't need to--it's all available on the internet anyway. 

 The destination: Syracuse, NY.

The weekend: Easter 2009

The mission: hit Target, Lane Bryant, the nearby outlet malls. And take the doggies on their first cross-border trip

The results: spectacular, the boys were super well-behaved in the hotel and crossing the border was easy in both directions.

 I scored: a great neutral linen dress, several t-shirts, a pair of cool sport shoes, a couple of pairs of jeans, a print skirt I can wear with my flat brown Duo boots. 

I didn't get: the two pantsuits I really need to pick up before my trip to the Middle East next month.