Free Money

I love winning!

This past weekend we met up with Hubbies Mom and Brother at the Empire City Casino and Racetrack in Yonkers after our dentist appointments.
We thought it would be fun to have a bite to eat and bet on a few horses while they were here on a day trip with Tommy's social club.

We get to the Casino at around 5pm and find them right away. I must go to the promotions desk first to claim my $5.00 free play voucher that I got for my birthday. That was a plus, my first games played will not cost me one thin dime of my own cash.
Schweet!
We then said our hello's to the group and were deciding where to eat. Cafe, Food Court, Expensive Ala Cart restaurant or Buffet.

The cafe was closed on the weekend, the Ala Cart was not really an option, I voted buffet to deaf ears and it was decided, the food court.
I did hear they had Chinese and my tummy was calling for it all weekend so that was a good choice.
Some said they were going to the food court, but then changed their minds and went to the buffet (I was jealous).

After it was all said and done, and everyone had a full belly, it was time to play.
The horses were starting at 7pm and it was 6:50pm. So no time to play (pouting on the inside), at least not yet.

I honestly did not want to play the horses, I know nothing of odds, if I like a horse's name I play it. Not a very smart way to bet. So I watched and it was rather exciting! Seeing it live and as it is happening right then and there was what made it so much more thrilling to watch.

Hubbie and I stayed to watch the first 2 races then left his mom and brother to their horses and we went down to the casino to play the one arm bandits for a while (jumping up for joy on the inside).

I scope the joint and see what machine calls to me. I wanted to play the Wheel of Fortune machine, but they were all taken. I played the bodega brand Wheel of Cash game (or what ever its called) instead. Inserted my $5.00 free play money, played for about 5 minutes and won $20.10 and cashed out. I wanted to come out even at least and now I am up $20.00!

Hubbie just watched, played a bit, but nothing called to him.

After cashing out the twenty we were on our way out when for some strange reason a Turbo Flame something or other penny machine caught my eye. I had three singles in my pocket (the change from a $5.00 I used earlier to buy my coffee) and said to Hubbie, "just $3.00, OK?" and he told me to sit.
About 4-6 spins later I hit something that looks big, Hubs tells me to cash out and the winnings were $40.80! On a penny machine! So I cash out and run with the extra $61.90 I now have in my pocket! Just in time to put towards Donna's 21'st Birthday present. I wish I could tell you what I am getting, but she reads this so she will just have to wait and thank me later.

So all in all I came out a winner with clean teeth!

Over heard at the playground

When I picked up brook at school the other day I noticed a very red eye and was immediately concerned.
I asked her how it felt and she said it was itchy and it bothered her. I told her we needed to go to the doctor when she said "I better tell her that my eye was making sleep and I wasn't even tired."
She had pink eye.



Out of the mouths of babes.

Welcoming Maxi

When three becomes four.

Meet the newest member of Our Family:

For all of you who know me, I am the crazy cat lady and have had cats for over 22 years now (and that does not include before being on my own). I am so used to four that after Micki's passing it felt as if I were missing something these past few months.

My hubbie calls me one day about a month ago to come and take a look at something at work. He stressed it was NOT a dog (we have been taking about getting a dog for Brook, but I am just not ready for a dog in our apartment).
So I pack up the kids and take a look at what he is talking about.
I was handed a co-workers blackberry with a photo of the most adorable kitty I have ever seen!
She was born August 7th at 1 am and has a brother or sister (that I just wish I could have taken but just couldn't)
I saw her at about a month old. We were hoping for a boy, but then it was too early to tell.
I picked her up on Thursday the 24th and took her to the vet on Sunday. She got only 1 shot and 1 de-wormer treatment because she was too little. We are finishing up the vaccines in a month when she is bigger. We did verify that she was in fact a girl and that it was very rare for a blue eyed orange and white kitty. Long hair to boot! I may have to invest in a new brush for all this hair to come!
What a squeaky fluff she is though, she cries to be pet and when she is looking for attention. And she is such a pleasure to have around. She is already litter trained and the other three are finally tolerating her! I think they can sense that she is not going anywhere.
I cannot stop looking at her and playing with her and just loving her. Please help me welcome my newest baby!

How do your reading habits stack up?

Stolen from my brother's (www.vinniecosta.com) blog, I took the challenge and lost to him by a mere 3 books read. I am sure that I totally beat him in reality because I actually read the WHOLE series of Harry Potter books and The Dark materials saga, so ha!

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books listed here. How do your reading habits stack up?

I read 50 out of 100, some were read a really long time ago (like the classics in HS) but Audrey Niffeneggers "The Time Travelers Wife" was fairy recent for me, so...I wonder also how the list was compiled.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen [X]
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien []
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte [X]
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling [X]
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee [X]
6 The Bible – [X]
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte [X]
8 1984 – George Orwel [X]
9 Philip Pullman His Dark Materials Series- [X]
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens []

Running Total: 8/10

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott [X]
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy []
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller []
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – [/]
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier []
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien [X]
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk []
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger [X]
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger [X]
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot []

Running Total: 13

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell [X]
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald [X]
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens [X]
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy [ ]
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams [X]
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh []
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky []
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck [X]
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll [X]
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame [X]

Running Total: 20

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy []
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens [X]
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis [x]
34 Emma-Jane Austen []
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen []
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe [X]
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hossein []
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieresx []
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden [X]
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne [X]

Running Total: 25

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell [X]
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown [X]
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez []
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving []
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins []
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery []
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy []
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood [X]
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding [X]
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan []

Running Total: 29

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel [X]
52 Dune – Frank Herbert []
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons []
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen [X]
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth []
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon []
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens [X]
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley [X]
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon []
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez []

Running Total: 33

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck [X]
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov [X]
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt []
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold []
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas [X]
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac []
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy []
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding []
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie []
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville [X]

Running Total: 37

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens [X]
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker [X]
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett []
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson []
75 Ulysses – James Joyce [X]
76 The Inferno – Dante [X]
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome []
78 Germinal – Emile Zola []
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackery []

Running Total: 41

80 Possession – AS Byatt []
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens [X]
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell []
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker [X]
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro []
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert []
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry []
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White [X]
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom []
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [X]
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton []

Running Total: 45

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad []
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery [X]
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks []
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams [X]
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole []
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute []
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas [X]
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare [X]
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl [X]
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo []

Total: 50/100

Photo Phriday: Sid and Harvey

I know you remember my Pidge and Pudge, well meet Sid and Harvey...



1 week old



Two weeks old


Born 2 weeks ago under my couch on my terrace. I created a home for them and as soon as they are ready to fly I am getting an owl (fake of course, I am tired of cleaning up bird poo)!
What did you see?

Savant Spot: The Time Traveler's Wife

Brilliant, unique, sexy.
It is a love story about a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about his wife, an artist who has to cope with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was hooked from the first 5 pages in! Its a little bit Sci Fi, little bit drama, little bit love story...my kind of mix!

Only in NYC

Do you get bombarded by nice Jewish girls throwing cards and honey sticks at you on your way to work?
No?
How about seeing one of these on your block...



No?

A giant motorized kosher supermarket cart.
Well, now you have seen it all baby!

Take Two...

I thought it was over.
I washed, scraped and scrubbed my terrace and just when I thought I was done:



Please welcome Sid and Harvey to the world!

Anthony was pulling the rug out to throw away for me (due to all the pigeon poop on it) so I could get the terrace power washed before the cold weather rolls in (so I wouldn't have to try to remove frozen pigeon poop!)
When he found two more babies!
Well, I am honored?
I feel bad for them and don't want them to die so...
I made a coop for them




and when Anthony gets home from work we are going to put the rest of the rug and the babies in there so they are contained to one spot.
I have gotten smarter when it comes to pigeon keeping.

When these two fly the coop (like Pidge and Pudge did) I am getting an owl, not a real one, one of those wooden ones to keep the pigeons away for good. It is not that I dislike them, I dislike the clean up after them...dirty birdies that they are.

Photo Phriday

Photo Phriday

Pidge and Pudge (my baby pigeons) have flown the nest and I finally have my terrace back, but they have not flown so far...
Eddie keeps a watchful eye over them on a daily basis, good boy Eddie...

On September 4th

My handsome, talented, spectacular brother Vinnie was born!



Happy Birthday Vin, I love ya too much!