Family Vacation - The price to have fun.

DO NOT READ my blog today!!!

Unless you are willing to let your voices be heard concerning the price of admission to the so-called family vacation parks….Disneyworld, Disneyland, Six Flags, Sea World, Bush Gardens, etc. These parks were touted to be safe places to take our children on family outings.

With the economy the way it is, how can an average family afford to go to these parks?

Even if you stay in mediocre accommodations for only two nights, the cost is very expensive, plus airfare, could run in the $1000s. A balloon is eight dollars, water is about four dollars, parking the car is fifteen dollars a day not to mention, heaven forbid, you need a stroller or wheelchair. All children over twelve years old are now charged as adults.

OOPS, I forgot to mention the fact that children [mom and dad] like to bring home souvenirs. Ca Ching Ca Ching Ca Ching!!!!!!!   Give us a break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s get out our pens, pencils and computers to let these entertainment moguls know how we feel about price gouging, at the expense of our children.

While the weather is still nice take the kids to a local zoo. Make a picnic and spend time together. 

Put a smile on a friends face today.

Grannie B

Holiday Fitness - All in the shoes!!!!

Weigh-in’s are now only once a week – I’m down .2 of a pound

Left this morning at 7:30 am to catch a flight home.  I flew into LAX for a quick meeting at KVP (Kenn Viselman Presents) office.  So many things are going on (I’m very fortunate to be included).

During the lunch break, the ladies (Kara, Eileen and Jamie) were talking about the fab new sneakers by Sketchers and Reebok.  So off I went with them to buy a pair of these exercise sneakers.

Can you believe I had to learn how to walk in them!  They are marketed as weight loss and tightening of the calves.  Normally, I wear a 7 ½ - these are a 9.   It takes a few minutes to get used to them…you have to balance yourself as you walk.  I have high hopes for them.  The best part is they make me 1 ½ “ taller!!!

Thumbs up for my new fitness sneakers.

Take a friend for a walk today.

Grannie B.

You Can Help Save A Life!

Up one pound this morning.  It must be the weather…

The American Heart Association wants to enlist as many people as possible to learn CPR. You never know when someone is going to need help. Adult CPR is never used on children under 8 years old.

I went online and saw a great website that outlines the procedure. 

 http://www.wikihow.com/Do-CPR-on-an-Adult

Ideally, only people who have received proper training should perform CPR.  Although, the faster a person receives CPR, the better. If no one else can help, follow these instructions to perform CPR. And get someone to call 911.

This is very important at our age to know how we can help each other and ourselves. 

Have a wonderful day and a very Happy Thanksgiving…..

Grannie B

It's The Shopping Season

Weigh in for the week wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.  Got to watch it before Thanksgiving.

It is fun to remember when my children were young at holiday time.  Each night they were given small gifts (slippers, pj’s, books, etc.).  All the Chanukah money was put away until after Christmas.  Then off we would go in search of all the things they wanted.  The best part was when we added up all the retail prices and added all the sale items.  It was amazing how much money they saved.  Those are great memories for me (hopefully, my kids feel the same!).

Happy Shopping!

P.S. Have to go now there’s a sale at the mall.

 

Do something nice for someone today.

Grannie B.

Fed Up with Commercials

Today’s weigh in wasn’t so good.  Up a pound.  URGH!

I am so fed up with commercials.

The Tide commercial shows a young girl asking her mom if by any

chance did she see her green blouse?  Mother answers her by saying

“no dear I have not seen your green blouse.” The mother waits for the

girl to leave the room, then rushes upstairs to wash the green shirt

because she had worn it. Next you see her daughter wearing the shirt

and tells her that she found the shirt in the back of her closet. In my

mind she lied to her daughter over something so inane.  Poor

example.

Thumbs down from Grannie B

Make today a wonderful day….smile

Grannie B

Black Friday Shopping - Watch out for those "deals"

As we are getting older, we expect change to happen.  It certainly did – iPad, Google, EBay, etc. has made our lives more interesting.

Along came “Black Friday” that was always the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Now low and behold, it has been moved to mid-October, right after Halloween.  Most, if not all of us, are just planning what we’re going to serve for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Most retail stores are starting their Christmas discounts.  Now it’s understanding that they want to get rid of old merchandise to make room on the shelves for new items.  They are pushing TV’s because in 2012 all the older sets will not work (new technology).  Be sure to ask the sales people if these are new or old models. 

Since I became a computer wizard (not really a wizard, a one finger at a time typer), I could now shop on the internet (I think I’m modern – haha).  But that’s not for me.  Somehow, I am one of the few that do not want to shop without touching to see if it scratches, or trying it on to see if the size is going to fit.

Wonderful wishes and happy smiles.

Grannie B

Cruising...on Cruise Ships

Carnival Cruise Line is a respected carrier.  I have been on their cruises many times.

I don’t understand in this day and age how a cruise ship can have a power outage without backup generators.  I understand there was a fire, but you would think they would have some type of Plan B.  And why didn’t they have another one of their ships come and take these people off?

The line must feel that because they are refunding the entire price of the cruise and (I think) they will be given a free cruise later, that gets them off the hook.

I’d think twice about Carnival now –

Happy Sailing

Grannie B

Dancing with the Stars - Lovely

Today is simply beautiful here.

I must be living under a rock!  One of the most popular shows on television is “Dancing with the Stars.”  I’ve never seen even one episode (play Canasta that night).

It’s a shame that I missed out on such an entertaining program.

Tom Bergeron and I go back a very long time.  Tom started his own TV Show in Boston (many, many years ago).  His personality made the show fun to watch.  He went on to host Hollywood Squares…of course we watched.

My friends kept talking about DWTS and how much fun it was with all kinds of celebrities.  Tonight’s (Canasta game was cancelled) was the night to see the show.

Jennifer Grey and her partner Derek were wonderful.  I haven’t seen her since Dirty Dancing.  She was stunning.

Randy and Max were great.  Max is so handsome – boy oh boy can he dance.  He can make anyone look great.  He can put his slippers under my bed anytime!!!

The best part of the show was watching Val and Mark (who had their own competition) play violin and guitar.  It was fabulous.  Then they danced.  Amazing.  

Very hard to say who won…both were given 5 Grannie Apples on my scale.

The judges, Carrie Ann, Len and Bruno are so much fun!  They get so excited.

I’m going to give Bristol Palin two thumbs up for trying so hard.  She is so cute and humble – nothing like her mother or Levi.

Have a wonderful and happy day.

Grannie B

Texting - Why can't we just talk....

Weighed in today and I’m up 2 pounds.  The button on my pants are a bit stretched to say the least.

Today is the day for us to talk about our family (young and old) and their social lives. It doesn’t seem to matter where they are or who they are with, texting, texting, and more texting, all I see are the tops of their heads. They eat, sleep, and think with their phones. Facebook falls in the same category, with too much personal information getting put on the web, nothing is a secret. For instance, I went over to my son and daughter-in-law’s house the other night for dinner where my daughter-in-law was telling me a story about an old friend. She had gone on Facebook earlier that day to find that this old friend had posted an entire fight in detail that he had had with his wife. Everyone then knew about it, which to me is certainly awful to their marriage in that it is none of our business what happens behind closed doors. The amount of voices heard in conversations now a day are so limited that children along with their parents forget how to express their feelings verbally to the people around them.

Thumbs down for texting

Thumbs up for my family and conversation

Have a wonderful day….

Grannie B

Stone Review

Weigh-in was good today.  Not up and not down, which is perfect.

I’ve been wondering who are the people who critique the theatre and the movies? I would assume if a movie is given 3 star rating, that means it should be a really good film!  Last night we [10 of us] went to see the movie STONE. It was long and boring. We wasted the evening, as well as 10 dollars each.

The cast included Robert DeNiro and Ed Norton.  It was a shame to waste their talent on such a nothing movie.

Thumbs down for STONE.

Make today a special day and smile.

Grannie B

G-Rated Movies - Are they appropriate?

Yikes, the scale moved a little to the right today.  Not good.

I went to the movies with my great nieces and nephews who are under the age of five. The movie was rated G, but I did not think it was appropriate for the younger children. The people on top of the movie industry need to incorporate a new acronym such as YC (young children) for the children under 5. How many of you have ever felt similar towards these ratings?

Thumbs Down for the Ratings Board

Thumbs Up for enjoying my great nieces and nephews

Make today a Happy Day

Grannie B

The iPad is AMAZING

Today I got up about 7 am.  The sun was just coming up - - it was a beautiful sight.

Weigh-in fit the day…good news – 1 pound down 

Recently, I received a gift of an ipad.   Everyone wanted to know what in the world I was going to do with it.  Guess what --  I'm having a great time!  I take it with me almost everywhere.  It helps me pass time while I wait in the doctor office, going on a plane, picking up the kids at school, waiting for my turn at canasta and best of all I take it to bed with me (I’ve been alone a long time ha ha).

              

I played a game on it with my son Jeff and my grandkids. The game is THE TREASURES OF MONTEZUMA. The family that plays on an iPAD together stays together!!!!

Two Thumbs Up for ipad

MAKE IT A HAPPY DAY.  SMILE A LOT

Grannie B

CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE

Woke up early  - 6 am                                                                         

Weight Watchers same

Today I had a really special day with my grandkids.  It’s not easy finding things to do with them because of the age difference (14 and 10) and because they are so different from each other.

The idea came to us that we all like to eat, especially dessert. Today is going to be desserts day at Grannie B's (sh sh don't tell Weight Watchers).

Of course, it has to be made with chocolate and more chocolate!!!

We made chocolate chip cookies with extra chips and nuts. Then we made an old family recipe that we call Black and White pudding. The recipe is very easy.  We make it with a graham cracker crumbs on the bottom and then layers alternating with chocolate and vanilla pudding.  The next layer is made by grating hunks of milk chocolate (just throw it all over the pudding). Repeat the pudding layers until all is gone. Top layer is whipped cream sprinkled with more hunks of chocolate.

Now we decided to make corn bread from an old sisterhood cookbook (Temple Beth Avodah). It came out really good.  Finally. we made the greatest brownies ever!!!!  With the help of Ghirardelli. Their Caramel Turtle mix is fabulous!!!! (Sorry Beth, they were better than yours. It’s not bad to be #2).  IT WAS SO YUMMY we all wanted to lick the spoon and the bowl!!!!

My grandson wrote an essay for school telling his class how much fun he had baking desserts at his grannie’s house with his sister.  The very best part of his essay was and I quote  “I have the greatest grannie ever."

                   This made my whole day!!!!!!!!!

cookies       3 grannie apples

pudding        3

brownies      5 apples  and thumbs up

cornbread     4

Grandkids           xoxo

MAKE TODAY A HAPPY FUN DAY

Grannie B

Monday TV - How can I watch them all!

Woke up late today – 9:00 am.  Forgot my nail appointment.  Fear not, I made a new one!  I received a star at Weight Watchers for losing 5 lbs.  HOORAY!  Now I need to keep it off.

I have tried very hard to enjoy “The Event.”  While watching the pilot, I was completely confused.  There were so many flashbacks that if you took your eyes off the T.V. screen for one minute, you missed another flashback.

It’s a problem on Monday nights.  “Castle” “Hawaii 5-0” and “Chase” are all on at the same time.  I really enjoy “Castle.”  The cast is so perfect together.  Castle’s daughter Alexis is so real the way she twists her dad around her finger.

Thumbs up for my 5 lbs

Have a wonderful day and don’t let things bother you today.

Grannie B