The Fabulous B@ker Blog

What a news week! Unless you live under a rock, you know there were some pretty important issues in the news this week, all of which I am happy about  - being the bleeding heart liberal that I am! First up, the removal of the confederate flag from buildings in the South (not just South Carolina). After the tragic murder of nine innocent people at a church prayer service in South Carolina last week, the confederate flag became the focus (and has long been the emblem) of white supremacist hatred, seeing such activity as the inspiration for the shooter. While I would love the warmer weather in the South, I'm not sure I can deal with their attitudes. Take down that flag! On Thursday, the SCOTUS decision to uphold provisions of the Affordable Care Act (which others call "Obamacare," but I refuse to call it that...I find it a term derogatorily used by the crazy conservatives). Please, people, can we move on? ACA is WORKING! I now realize that before the ACA if Mark and ...

Last weekend Mark and I left early on Friday morning to head up to Massena to try to make some headway in finishing the clean out of my parents' house. It's getting down to the wire now with "stuff" remaining, and I guess any hopes of getting it on the market in spring have gone down the tubes as we enter the dog days of summer. Not that it will sell quickly anyway - it needs so much work and is one of five other houses on the market on their block alone...all the same two bedroom cape cods in various states of disrepair. Mark and I got right down to business and made great progress in our cleaning. By the time we left, every room was cleared out, with boxes stacked in the dining room, ready to be donated. There is still a little work to be done in the basement, and we will most likely be heading up again soon to finish that. Then, the house will need a GOOD cleaning. A really good cleaning. This time around, packing stuff up, I spent a bit of time just looking ar...

Just about every five years or so we have a need to shake things up and decide to switch bedrooms. Last weekend was taken up with moving Mark and I into the guest room (now known as our "suite" because it's connected to the three season porch with a couch and TV), moving Annalisse into our old room, and making Annalisse's room into the guest room. Cam's room is the only one left untouched (because, basically, he doesn't care where he sleeps). But, it's not just moving the bedrooms; it's figuring out the "closet situation" when no one closet is big enough for me and Mark to share. In the two older houses we've owned, one of us usually has to go into another room to use his/her closet. Mostly, that ends up being me.  It seems like a continuation of the deep dive into cleaning we've done in the last month, beginning with the vacuum and tossing-out-stuff project in the attic. We had not really cleaned out (or cleaned) the attic since ...

The girls hit the BIG CHAIR I'm a little late getting to the Girl's Weekend 2015 edition because...work, family stuff after work (like dinner...dishes...dog walks...porch sitting...), but mostly because of binge watching different shows on Netflix rather than updating the blog. MY BAD. In other words: laziness. Anyway, last weekend five of us girls headed to a cabin in the woods on Fourth Lake in the Adirondack town of Inlet, about 10 miles from Old Forge. Every year we begin the planning for our weekend in January or so, and this year it seemed extraordinarily difficult to find a date that worked for everyone. We must have gone back and forth 10 time before we "penned in" June 4-7, then deciding on a location, well, that took another bit of time. Last year, Girl's Weekend was in September, and this year, going in June, it seemed like we just got back from our last get together! After much deliberation, we finally settled on returning to the Adirondacks and ...

The siblings John and Pete in front Sher, Jeanne, Martha and Mary in back A very happy belated B@ker Blog shout out to Aunt Sher on the occasion of her milestone birthday last week.  Seventy-five years young!!! And what a celebration...Kara, Piper and Beth from Oregon, the Versprilles from Massachusetts, relatives from Florida, near and far, all gathered for a celebratory picnic to honor our beloved family matriarch! I'm glad you had a great day, Sher!! Much love!!