The Fabulous B@ker Blog

Well, friends, we are going on six months of dark skies, snow, sleet, rain, and freezing temperatures. It's certainly getting harder to tolerate this never ending winter, and it's really contributing to a general crankiness and malaise, and I know I'm not alone in this. Add to this a "not great" week, and not a lot of exciting stuff to look forward to, and you've got full blown Seasonal Affective Disorder. Life is a bit of a grind sometimes, isn't it? On the bright side, the Rochester Broadway Theatre League has three great shows (among all the shows scheduled) coming this fall: Book of Mormon (MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND!) , Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella . Those of us of a certain age (and gender) will certainly remember the 1965 Cinderella TV special: My sister, Mary, is particularly obsessed with  R & H's Cinderella at the moment. Also, at last year's Tony Awards they performed th...

If you know anything about me, you know I LOVE Vermont, although I cannot say that we've gone there for at least five years - WAY TOO LONG. So that's why it's so ironic that Cam is there right now, skiing and enjoying all the things I love about The Green Mountain State. I can remember when both kids, but in particular Cam, would hem, haw, complain and pout about our yearly trip, usually in October when the state is at its most beautiful. I'm anxious to hear his opinion as an adult, especially spending time there with his "special someone," and the fact that she has family there and spends a fair amount of time there. It's simply NOT FAIR.  These kids!!

A very happy birthday shout out to our wonderful mother, Jeanne/Mema/Popo today! Isn't she lucky to have a birthday that falls on  the first day of spring?!  Sending our love across the miles! Mom and Lena

Just think! Today is the last day of winter. Tomorrow (also Mother Shiao's birthday!) the skies will clear and the sun will come out (just like on the opening of the "The Simpsons"). Tulips will bloom. Birds will chirp. Bunnies will hop! Winter has overstayed its welcome and we are kicking its butt out of town. All happening tomorrow. Get ready!!!

Well, another weekend has passed, and Annalisse is back at school (booo!). I think she had a pretty good week off characterized by total boredom alternately mixed with total fun and excitement. One thing I can tell you: there was no studying going on; and with mid-terms coming up this week...oh well. What can you do? There's only so much nagging I can tolerate (coming from me, that is), and I get sick of doing that all the time. Things really ramped up on the weekend bookends. Last weekend Annalisse went to Alex's "Track (team) Ball" at SUNY Oswego, and we also had our Beer Club get together. This month's theme was really fun: we did March Madness "brackets" where we taste tested eight beers. Ours came in second - SO CLOSE! The week between the weekends was nothing to write home about, except the Wednesday blizzard that resulted in Rochester (and my work!) shutting down for the day. We did end up getting a ton of snow, so it was probably for the b...

What a crazy winter. What a crazy March. I am home for Naz's first snow day in I-can't-remember-when. Exciting stuff. EXCEPT THERE'S A FREAKIN' BLIZZARD COMING. C'mon! Give me spring! How will I spend my bonus day? Well, Annalisse is home on break so there's that. Plus, I started watching "Orange is the New Black" on Netflix, so I suppose I could put a dent in that. Oh, yeah - and a nap; don't forget about the nap. (HEY! Did you know Monday was National Nap day? Unfortunately, I did not get to celebrate it.) Oh, and I'll probably have to cook dinner since it will be too treacherous to go out. DANG. I was on a roll there. I'm also thinking a quick trip to Wegmans may be in order to get the fixins' for the corned beef and cabbage dinner this weekend (then I won't have to go Thursday [since I'm pretty busy all day] or Friday [when there's a chance the corned beef might be sold out]). At Cam's request (he's bring...

It's finally Saturday and the house is buzzing once again after a quiet week. Mark is home from Denver, Annalisse is home for spring break, and there is one happy dog bounding around the house. Big kid will be home for break next week. When Mark is gone to Denver for work and it's just me and puppy at home in the evening, it's pretty pathetic, boring stuff. Our after-work schedule goes a little something like this: Come home between 5-5:30pm Take Jasper down the street ("The world is his toilet.") Come home, catch up on all the important (celebrity!) news and blogs I read Figure out what I'm having for dinner (eggs and toast? pancakes? bagel? spaghetti and sauce?) Watch a little TV before taking puppy out again around 7 (Silver lining: I can walk him in my PJs because it has gotten dark so early - until now. Looks like I'll have to actually put jeans/real pants on with the daylight getting longer.) After a quick walk, head upstairs to my "ca...

Sue, Judy and Sanny Fun in the (cold) Sun Well, we're back from our trip to Virginia. Nine hours...long day of driving. We travelled to visit Mom Shiao in Northern VA, followed by a quick trip four hours to the south to see Sue, Ken and cousin San in Roanoke. Even though it was a lot of time in the car, it was a great trip. The weather wasn't super warm*, but it was very sunny and, although not in the 50s or anything, guaranteed to be warmer than Rochester. No question! It's always super fun to visit the DC area ~ there is always so much to do AND SO MANY GREAT PLACES TO EAT! We weren't there very long (just one full day on Thursday), but enjoyed spending time with Mom and also got to see Jackson and Amelie for bit.  On Friday morning we were back on the road after breakfast heading to Salem/Roanoke to visit the the Englands. We got there just after 2pm, and went out for a late lunch before heading back to Sue and Ken's to chill for a while. On Satu...