Free to a good home.....one handicapped frog; missing one foot and leg. When I was cleaning windows on Saturday, this one slipped out of my hand and fell into the kitchen sink.

Trying to upload photos is tiresome business, especially since Blogger is not cooperating with me. It took four minutes to get this one up. Bah!

When I left the flower shop in Cary yesterday, it was 96* and the forecast for today and the rest of the week shows it hovering around 98*. ENOUGH already!! (A voice crying in the wilderness.....)

Overnight temps are in the 70's, so that means that the swimming pool has already cooled to below 80* - even though it is hotter than Hades during the day. I won't get anywhere near the pool unless the water temperature is over 83*, so that's it for the remainder of the season for me. My grandchildren don't mind, though, and one of them will swim until the water gets down to 70*. Too bad they don't live a bit closer so they can swim more often.

I'm working every day this week except Tuesday.....and grateful for it!  The economy may not have picked up where you are, but around here, people are buying flowers for weddings, birthdays, illness, etc. The shop was really busy yesterday - especially for Monday. Mr. kenju doesn't like it much when I am gone, but we need a break from each other now and then....and the pay doesn't hurt either.

Are you looking forward to your favorite shows coming back in the fall?  I am, and a wee bit interested to see some of the new ones as well. Dancing with the Stars will start its 11th season, I think. Why they had to ask that Palin kid to come on the show is beyond me. She's NO star!! They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point. I'd almost rather watch Kenny Mayne dance....LOL!  (Edit: after watching the announcement tonight of the "stars" on the show this season, I am singularly unimpressed!)

American Idol will come back with new judges (at this point we don't know who, for certain). Will you miss Simon? I do hope that whomever they choose to replace Simon doesn't think he/she has to be just as nasty as he was sometimes.

Survivor will have oldies facing off against young people. The last time they tried that it wasn't very interesting. Maybe these groups will be different. Can you tell I watch a lot of reality TV?    I love fictional dramas, nature shows and science/medical stuff too, but I enjoy watching "real" people and seeing the psychology of it all (even though they are sometimes obnoxious!)

What's your favorite TV show? 

Live from New York........

Edit: I discovered that if you double-click any of the names in this post, you will get the Wikipedia listing for them. All except for mr. kenju, of course....LOL

The Stanner Alumni Association Hall of Fame dinner and award ceremony; held at the New York Athletic Club in March. The high school is Mr. Kenju's Alma Mater, Archbishop Molloy in Queens, NY. The top photo is Tom Westman, an alum of the school, who won a million dollars on the CBS TV show Survivor, when he was a NYC Fireman.

The name "Stanner" is a contraction of Saint Ann's, which was the name of the school in earlier years.

Second: Louie Carnesecca, former coach at both Molloy and St. Johns University.


And last, but not least, Mr. Kenju, accepting the award for his undefeated team (32-0..... 1957-58). The man behind him is holding the plaque that was presented to members of his team. I will show it to you soon.

I Met a Survivor!

Go here to read all about Tom Westman:

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor10/survivors/bio/tom.shtml

Tom attended Archbishop Molloy High School, the same as mr. kenju (but much later) so he was there on Thursday night for the Hall of Fame Ceremonies. When Miss kenju#2 and I got back to the NY Athletic Club after seeing the show, we were invited upstairs to the tap room, for an after-party. I felt a little self-conscious since I was not dressed for a party, but it turned out okay, because most of the other women were not dressed up either, except for daughter #1, who looked beautiful. (no I cannot show a photo of her - she won't let me.)

Mr. kenju knew what a fan of Tom Westman's I had been when he was on Survivor. He played with integrity and intelligence, or so it seemed at the time. So at the first opportunity, he dragged Tom over to me and introduced us. Tom was very gracious and friendly, and we discussed Survivor for a bit. He said that most castmates in the previous Survivor shows do not stay in contact with each other, but his group is in touch, and some of them have even visited NY and stayed with Tom and his family. He said something to the effect of: I now have a whole group of 20 somethings as friends.

He told me that he lost 30 pounds while he was on the show. Previous to the show, he had been training for a marathon, and was in the best shape of his life when he started on Survivor. Imagine being in great shape and then losing 30 pounds. Since that time, he has put on 20 of the pounds he lost. I thought he still looked great, but he says he needs to lose it again.

After Tom won Survivor, he retired from the New York Fire Department, and now works as a financial planner (I think that is what he said). And that was my little brush with fame last week!

Tomorrow, I'll show some pics and tell you about our Friday in New York.