This is a picture of my cousin Kevin in the yard, on the street where my family, my grandparents and my aunt and family lived in Easthampton, MA. The town coal yard is at the end of the road. Those were the days of coal yards, ice boxes and in the 50s, my grandparents and uncles buying the first TV. We all gathered in their living room to watch boxing on the box. I adore this picture of Kevin. Today he's a parent and grandparent and a real super person. Love you Kevin!

My first sleepover. My sister tells me the reason she's pouting is because I got to go on an overnight and she couldn't go. I obviously was happy to be going. I will periodically pop in these blasts from the past. Enjoy!

Our trip to NYC to see Mamma Mia on Sun. 7/12/09.

We started our day in NYC at Madame Tussaud's. This is Madame Tussaud. She was petite like our little Mom Mom.
NOTE to Blog viewers: Don't forget to move your cursor around the penguins and watch them follow it. I love playing with the penguins.

Johnny Depp at Madame Tussauds. He could have at least looked at me. Oh well! Love him anyway.

Antonio with Pele.

Socializing with Julia Roberts.

Here I am helping Steven Spielberg direct a movie at Madame Tussauds.

On the way to dinner and the show we watched a street performer who shook hands with Antonio after his performance (and after I gave him a couple of bucks!). I have great pictures of us inside the theater but not all of us in the house wants to be in the blog. I have to respect those wishes.

The Stardust Diner is a couple of doors over from the Winter Garden Theater where we saw Mamma Mia.

Before the show we had dinner at the Stardust Diner where the waiters and waitresses sang the entire time we were there, almost two hours. They are all aspiring to be on Broadway someday. Our waitress is the blond on the left. She sang to Antonio. We got her name and hope to see her on Broadway someday.

Here's me practicing the moves after seeing Mamma Mia.

And here are the "Party Dolls." I keep forgetting that I should list groups of postings in reverse. You are seeing the end of the day picture and the beginning is at the bottom. Our original plan was to go to the Horse Park of NJ for their Freedom Fest, which had fireworks. But, on the way there, I decided to check out the Turkey Swamp campground. Then when I headed out, I went in a different direction. We had a nice ride out in the country but decided to ditch the fireworks plan and head to Mercer County Park to see the music. That was a nice surprise because I really like the "Party Dolls." In the first half of their act they don big sixties style wigs. We saw them a couple of weeks ago at a park in Somerset County. On the way to the park we bought KFC, for a picnic supper. Then when we left Mercer County Park, we headed in to Princeton to Halo Pub for ice cream. I'm going to finish this now because we are having a fierce lightning storm and I don't want to lose this post. Tomorrow we are going to see Mama Mia! I can't wait.

Here's a picture of the eaglets. We learned that they will not get their white heads until they are three or four years of age. This shot is taken with my camera, of a photo that was posted on a bulletin board next to the web cam that shows the eagle nest. Due to all of the rain, the nest has fallen apart. The eagles will build a new nest in November. We also learned that the parents will be casting the eaglets to go out on their own and they will not be permitted within a ten mile radius of their original home.

Okay, don't laugh. There is one of the adult eagles in this photo. You can't see it but I know it's there. It's perched on the bare tree in the front of the woods. If you look really, really close, you can see it's white head (which looks like a little white dot at the top of the tree). I was happy that we at least spotted an eagle. I didn't think to bring my binoculars. I hope to play with the original photo and crop it in hopes of getting a better picture of the eagle. We also saw osprey, both in a nest and one that was flying around showing off for us.

This is the pontoon boat. The guide was very imformative and it was great out on the water. Thanks to daughter Donna for telling us about the Manasquan Reservoir.

Here's me on the pontoon boat at the Manasquan Reservoir 7-11-09. Venturing out in hopes of seeing the resident eagles. My kiddies were with me.

Farewell to the King of Pop

I snapped many, many pictures, all on my TV screen. I watched all day, and evening. I especially liked the effect of this photo with the hues of blue. So sad. To me, he was a genius.

"Blanket" has captured my heart. In a newspaper article with a picture of the Jackson family in a group hug, posted with the article; When I looked down to the bottom right corner of the picture, a part of "Blanket's" face with one big eye is visible, his little hand gripping the arm of one of his uncles. The picture haunts me. His small size has made him get lost in the mix of all the grownups. I feel for the three children, but little "Blanket" looks most lost and confused of the three. God Bless the little children!

July 4th Sunset

Mother nature provided her own color on July 4th, '09. This picture was taken in New Egypt, NJ. Not bad for an east coast sunset.

This is me and my sister Maureen in the picture on the left. I think, with my hairdo, that I resemble my namesake, Claudette Colbert. Then there's the picture on the right. Taken a couple of years later. My mom gave me money to get my hair done and I came home with a poodle cut. The cut earned me the name "Frenchy." How do you like the sunglasses? These pictures were taken in the 50s. Was I really that slender back then? It strikes me funny that my bathing suit has a skirt. I have recently decided that due to my age and nature's plight on my body that I now need bathing suits with skirts. Back then it was a fashion statement. Now it's a camouflage. I might post in-between pictures one of these days.

My first car

This is a picture of me in my very first car. It was dark green and I thought that I was "hot stuff" when I was pedaling around in it. Once, a friend, playing he was a police officer, put a chalk mark on my tire, like I had a violation. I cried. He marred my beautiful car. This was the beginning of my dream for a dark green Jaguar. I never got the jag but I do have a dark green SUV. It's so wonderful to have all the old pictures to conjure up memories from my childhood.

Pictures from our trip to NYC on June 30th

I promised my best friend that I was over my obsession with the New Year's Eve ball, since I sent her many shots of it from several angles but; I couldn't resist this picture from behind it as it looked like it was decorated for the Fourth of July. Seconds after I shot this picture, it changed to other colors. I just got lucky with the red, white and blue. God Bless America! (For folks who don't know, the ball is now displayed year round, something I find thrilling whenever I visit the city. I love to watch the changing colors.)

We went back to take more pictures of Michael, after dark, since it was on the way to the train station. I figured we could get clearer shots now that the glare from the sun was gone. There were a few notes, and some roses at his feet. Earlier, when we were eating at Hard Rock Cafe, we only heard one Michael Jackson song. The waitress told us that they just started playing his songs.

Another note about the rain. When we were leaving Hard Rock (where we ate before the show) it was raining so we purchased ponchos. The three of us were walking billboards for Hard Rock as our ponchos were stamped with large Hard Rock Cafe logos. Many other people were walking around with other ponchos advertising places like Bubba Gump's restaurant, the sightseeing tour logo and others. It was interesting to read all of them. All in all it was a great day.

NYC Again

Me sitting in a lawn chair in Times Square after the show. It's 10PM and it was packed. I wanted to hang there for a while but there were no free chairs. I borrowed this one from a lady so I could have my picture taken. For those of you who don't know, a section of Times Square has been blocked to vehicular traffic and lawn chairs, lounge lawn chairs and little cafe tables and chairs are in place so people can hang out and walk in the square without the burden of traffic. Amazingly, after all of the rain that fell before and during the show, when we came out, it was dried up, except for some scattered puddles. It was as if it hadn't rained. Either the wind or the heat of the city dried the rain.

We're going back on July 12 to see Mama Mia. Can't wait. Shrek was the first broadway show that the kids attended and they loved it. There are so many more things we want to explore in NYC.

Still NYC

Antonio with the budda made from $1,000,000. American dollars. We all rubbed his belly for good luck. Antonio is so excited that he touched $1,000,000. The money was shredded, discarded bills from the government.

Went to NYC to see "Shrek"

Michael in the window at Madame Toussad's. With the reflection in the glass it looks like Michael is one with the building and larger then life.