The Fabulous B@ker Blog

It may be a cliche and a little annoying, but Annalisse and I have succumbed to the royal wedding fever that captured the world for the last couple of weeks, and culminated in the beautiful wedding yesterday of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Yes, we can all rave about how useless the English monarchy is, how they cost the taxpayers of England millions of dollars for "doing nothing." Gadzooks! How can the Royal family spend millions of dollars on wedding when the country is experiencing strict austerity conditions?! The fact is, many of us are really drawn in by the fairytale romance between a handsome prince and his down-to-Earth, beautiful commoner choice of a bride. After thirty tumultuous years of royal-watching where Prince Charles revealed himself to be a cold, out-of-touch spineless mamby -boy who led his young, shy, inexperienced, emotionally unstable choice of a bride forth like a lamb to slaughter, it's wonderful to see love prevail at last! Who would have ...

Today it is warm, sunny and breezy. When the weather is like this, I feel so alive! Isn't it funny how the weather affects our mood? I was truly meant to live in a warm weather climate.

Well, today it's "back to the old grind," as Nonnie used to say, after our quick trip to Virginia. The build up to the trip was tempered a little when I was befelled by a 24-hour stomach bug which started around 11pm on Monday night and lasted until 4:30am Tuesday morning, followed by an unexpected day off work spent drifting in and out of sleep all day. As always happens, I felt a bit more human on Wednesday morning as we packed up an headed south to Arlington for a quick overnight with Mom before heading down to Sue and Ken's in Salem, VA. I emphasize the "VA" because of the following exchange, which occurred on Friday: A nnalisse: When are we going to Salem. Me: What do you mean? We spent the whole day there yesterday. Annalisse: Are we going to the brewery? Me: What brewery? Annalisse: You know, the one near the Witch Museum Me: That's Salem, MA, not Salem, VA!!!! After dinner with the Arlington-based branch of the family, we got up early Th...

Here I am wishing time away again. I HAVE GOT TO STOP DOING THAT! But I really can't help it...I'm so looking forward to our short break next Wednesday when we travel south for a quick trip to visit Mom S. in Arlington VA, then head out early on Thursday on Thursday to visit Sue and Ken in Roanoke. We haven't been to visit them in several years so I'm really looking forward to it. It's such a nice area. While there, we're going to take Annalisse to look at Roanoke College , which is a college very much like the one's she'll be considering a year from now when we begin to look at colleges for her. Another fun thing I talked to Sue about doing was a day trip to Charlottesville to see Jefferson's Monticello . A trip to Monticello's been on my list a long time, so I'm really excited about that possibility as well. I'm soooo looking forward to a change of scenery and a break from work. Although I like my job very much, I feel like I haven...

I'm thinking of my friend and co-worker, Jo, today as she begins agressive treatment for lymphoma. What could be worse than being treated for cancer a day before your birthday? As if having to spend the whole day in chemo wasn't enough. Best of luck, Jo, for a full recovery!!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun I had with my NAGAP friends during our conference in DC! What a great group of people I've gotten to know through my NY group and the national group, and my circle is getting bigger every year. While I'm not much of a dancer (I'm still sort of stuck in the 80s), we had a blast dancing to one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE songs to make fun of , Kool & the Gang's Get Down On It . (I'll bet you thought I was going to say it's one of my all time favorite songs, and not the "to make fun of" part.) It's a classic!! Now, thanks to GDOI my friends cannot get that catchy tune out of their heads. It's the stuff of nightmares. And, here it is: How you gonna do it if you really don't want do dance By standing on the wall? Get your back up off the wall tell me. How you gonna do it if you really don't want to dance By standing on the wall. Get your back up off the wall 'Cause I heard all the ...

Being a little focused (some would say obsessed...) with getting an iPad 2, I trekked out of my hotel bright and early on Wednesday morning and took a cab ride over to The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City to try my luck at the Apple store. I got there around 9am, and there was already a line of about 20 people waiting for IPads . I went up to the employee greeting line waiters and she asked "what kind of iPad I wanted (???!!!)." I told her, and she handed me a white ticket with my specifications written on it. "Does this mean I have one?", I asked. "Yes," she answered. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With much excitement , I took my place in line (and immediately called Mark: "I GOT ONE!") behind a friendly soldier named Ed, whom I got to know a little better during our 1/2 hour in line. A very pleasant wait, indeed. Long story short, I'm the proud owner of a wifi 32G iPad 2 with a cool orange magnetic cover. HURRAY!

Seriously. Now I'm on Twitter. What could I possibly have to say that I've not said on Facebook, through e-mail, or on my blog? About a year ago I created a Twitter account because it seemed like the technological thing to do. But it wasn't until today, April 5, that I actually "tweeted after much peer pressure from my NAGAP pals, who have apparently been "tweeting" for a while now. So, I bit the bullet and wrote My first tweet. How do you like me now? Pretty compelling stuff, huh? If you are so inclined to "follow me" and have access to my most compelling (nonsensical) thoughts, I can be found at "Judith_Baker."

I arrived in DC yesterday night (after a two hour delay out of Rochester) to warm, balmy, beautiful weather! We are the Marriot Wardman Hotel , which is just steps from the metro and down the street from the National Zoo . Walking up the path to the hotel I was overwhelmed by he smell of tulips and hyacinth. Could it be true? Is it really spring (somewhere)? I was made for warm weather.

I must say I wish I was more of a patient line-waiter, because now that I'm ready to buy an iPad 2 I can't fined one. Due to underestimating demand (or some other lame excuse, like the inability to get certain parts for the iPad 2 since the earthquake/tsunami in Japan), there is not an iPad to be found. My coworker, Tonya, who is MUCH MORE patient than I am stood in line for three when they went on sale on March 11 and, is probably enjoying her iPad, "as we speak." But then, I've never had much patience for waiting in line. For this reason, a trip to Disney* has never been a really high priority for me (in fact, the idea of the crowds and the lines, to say nothing of the cost, is a bit of a nightmare for me), and when I encounter a long line for an event or to get food, I usually step aside and wait it out. I recall a time when the kids were little, and I got up early to go shopping on a Black Friday (which I never, ever do), and within a half-hour of being in Toy...