I BOUGHT A PEDOMETER

I've been very curious just how much I walk during the day. I am constantly picking orders and moving around. Well of course when I'm not sitting at this machine - which I love doing - reading my favorite food blogs. I have read that I need to take 10,000 steps per day. My pedometer is hard to set - it's just a plastic piece of junk - but sometimes the setting records NO STEPS and other times I feel as though it is too sensitive. But I'll find a happy medium soon - I HOPE.

So here are my results from yesterday.

It's almost the end of another exciting week here at Private Stock. BUY SOME MORE TIES!

Thank you!

Jane M

On another note, have any of you seen these YUMMY pretzel rolls in the market? They taste great. Here is my lunch - and don't get alarmed that this sandwich is HUGE. I put my sandwich on a butter dish. My sandwich consists of the pretzel roll, a thin slice of Muenster Cheese, 3 thin slices of roasted turkey, a nice blob of Cole slaw and the top of the sandwich. I also made a pitcher of ICED TEA - raspberry flavored.

A rainy March Day

Today feels like March usually feels - unlike the past week's weather. Today is rainy and a bit colder and all in all just WET.

Over the weekend we moved some hydrangea plants/shrubs - 3 to be exact. Our hose is not working - it's the original hose we bought 18+ years ago and it is just ready for the garbage. So like I said, we transplanted 3 hydrangea plants/shrubs but I never watered them in. SO LUCKY FOR ME IT'S RAINING! And for now it's the good soaking kind of rain. I hope the hydrangeas will take and grow and thrive. Last year the deer did a number on the ivy and it never grew back. Hopefully the deer won't much on my hydrangeas but for extra protection I threw down my special Milwaukee fertilizer to keep those pesky varmints away! I even measured out exactly 36 inches in between each shrub hoping that the 3 plants will look symmetrical - lets hope they grow in well too. We are also thinking of maybe buying 2 more hydrangeas to really fill in that bare spot. We shall see.

On another note, see our basketball court with the remains of all those acorns? Well I remember learning way back when, that if in the fall a lot of NUTS fall - that means a hard winter! I think that theory is right because we had the most nuts ever fall and we did have 2 major snow storms in February - and then that awful Nor'easter where we lost power for 36 hours!

OK time to start thinking about our dinner - fish is on the menu - well I know this because I sent Gary out to buy it!

Tonight is the 1st DANCING WITH THE STARS - Yep I'm going to tune in - I want to see this new crop of folks.

Best,
Jane M

What a difference a week makes

a week ago - we had just had our power restored. A week ago - it was freezing outside and I had to walk Gordie in my Uggs and winter coat. A week ago both my kids were home for their college breaks. A week ago we shipped out a massive amount of ties to all our stores from coast to coast. Well we're still shipping - and we have another big push to get the 1st of the Private Labels out the door - but last week was our first HUGE week of shipping for 2010. A week ago I was working on a different computer. A week ago I was cooking for 4 ... OK I'll stop with this whole shtick - FOR NOW.

I will close from an early evening Sunday and return tomorrow with more photos and STUFF that I've done - BESIDES SHIPPING OUT TIES!

Best,

Jane M

And NOW it's time

to think about getting Emily all settled for the upcoming summer. Emily is staying in DC this summer as she got a paid internship - and she will also live in this apartment for her senior year of college. What do you think she will need for this apartment? A BED OF COURSE! Off we went to the nearest SLEEPY'S and bought her a nice comfy beddie. Beds are a personal thing - soft, hard, pillow top, that foam stuff - so we all tried out the beds and Emily made her choice. Now for the delivery - we'll be going down to DC Memorial Day Weekend to move her in!

Many of the PRIVATE LABELS orders have come in and been shipped out! The ties looked FANTASTIC! DID YOU PLACE YOUR ORDER THIS SEASON? Well you might just have to wait until the summer when we see you all again at the shows to make your buy. Don't miss out - AGAIN!

Best,
Jane M

And then we got a storm

Hmmm let me start off with the positives:
1. THE STORM WAS NOT SNOW OR ELSE WE MIGHT HAVE 50 INCHES OF SNOW AND COUNTING AS THE RAIN HAS BARELY LET UP.
2. MY FAMILY IS ALL TOGETHER - BEING OUR TYPICAL CAHN SELVES - WE LIKE TO CALL OURSELVES "THE BICKER-ERS". That name suits us to a "T".
3. We have NOT MISSED 1 MEAL since...

LOSING POWER AT NOON, SATURDAY, MARCH 13TH. It's not easy being in the dark, in the middle of a rain storm waiting/hoping for the power to come back on. It technically is still WINTER and 40 degree outside weather does not make for a very warm house. We went to the JCC to work out and were hopefully coming home to power. NOPE. Went out for an early dinner hoping to come to back power. NOPE. Went right to the Home Depot to buy 4 monster flashlights hoping to come back to power. NOPE. Climbed into bed dressed in sweats, sweatshirts and socks reading with our flashlights. Gave up at 9pm and went to bed waking up every 2 hours looking for power. NOPE. In the meantime the time changed - who cares - who knew what time it was? (my watch is broken).

Woke up this morning and we each took 2 minutes showers with the remaining hot water that is in our 50 gallon tank and went out to the diner. Begged the diner owner to charge our cell phones 1 at the time. Ate and came home to see the PSE &G folks on our street. They claim we could be without power for days as a major power line is down and they need to set a new pole and hang the wires. ARE THEY KIDDING ME? THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY. I NEED POWER! I NEED THE INTERNETS.

So we packed up our computers and came to the JCC as we are members. The JCC has FREE INTERNET access (and let me tell you, it's FAST). The JCC has a lot of plugs. The JCC has TV! The JCC has it all but my cushy beddie and our GORDIE of course.

That's all from here - NJ got really hit by this storm. I'm sick of storms, rain, snow - whatever - Mother Nature must be really pissed off since some claim there isn't Climate Change because we are suffering - well in our own 21st century way.

Bye for now and hopefully not forever!

Jane

Here are the BISCOTTI

Another shipment of ties is arriving any day - and I'm ready to ship ship ship! There are over 60 packages of biscotti in my freezer. My kids are coming home from college this Friday and we're going to have good family time.

OK gotta get back to ties!

Best,
Jane M

I had a birthday

and enjoyed my day! We went into NYC for dinner at this really good Greek restaurant in Chelsea. YUM! Greek/Mediterranean food is so good and good for you! Basically it's grilled food with Greek olive oil and lemon!

Yesterday since it was such a nice spring day here in NJ, I recreated the salad we had at dinner the night before for our dinner. The only difference was I added grilled chicken to make it a meal. YUM! I did a good job.

I am attaching 2 photos. A week ago we had MOUNDS of snow from the latest storm to hit the North East. Yesterday, since it was so pretty out, Gary and I took Gordie for a walk and I snapped a photo of the same SLEIGH RIDING hill sans snow! Big difference no? The snowy picture was from last week's FRONT PAGE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES! We live 2 blocks from this big hill - which I'm scared of out my pants to sleigh down.

Needless to say, we are ALL looking forward to spring! I can see some bushes starting to bud!

Happy Monday to you all!

Best,
Jane M

A not so very good couple of days

Do you ever have it where the stars are just not aligned and things seem to NOT GO YOUR WAY? That's how Gary and I have felt the last couple of days. The 1 major headache was that this computer I'm working on pooped out on me! When I say pooped out, I mean the programs were not working and fan was spinning loud and I felt like this computer would just about BLOW UP! After a trip to the GEEK SQUAD at Best Buy we felt EVEN WORSE! I came home and left a voicemail for my parents - hi, how are you, my computer is busted. About 2 hours later my Mom called and said they have a computer guy in NJ who fixed my Dad's computer last Fall and to give these guys a call. Gary and I couldn't get into the car FAST ENOUGH to drive the 6 miles to the shop. We were helped RIGHT AWAY by 2 pleasant computer geeks - 24 hours later to the MINUTE - my computer was fixed up as best it could be and now we are back in bidniz! AAAH - relief --

I just hope everything else will fall into place and the stars will realign and all will be at peace here at the Cahn's.

OK I've got to get reading - I just finished my first book on my Kindle...THE BOOK WAS SO DARN GREAT - AND READING IT ON THIS KINDLE WAS EVEN BETTER!

A week from today my kids come home for Spring break. I could use the family bonding - and Gordie too - he really needs the company and for someone to throw him is toy! He's moaning right now for some attention.

Best,
Jane M

SOMEBODY PINCH ME!

LOOK LOOK - I GOT A KINDLE! I came home yesterday from an appointment with Gary - and tucked inside the front door and storm door was a nice looking box from AMAZON. I LOVE AMAZON! I LOVE AMAZON BOXES! MY PARENTS BOUGHT ME A KINDLE FOR MY BIRTHDAY! I came into the house, opened up the box and saw the gorgeous boxes inside the big Amazon box and I started jumping UP and DOWN. Yes indeedy I do that when I'm excited. Like the time - also in the kitchen - when Emily got into GW's school of Media and Public Affairs which only accepts 30 Freshman. Well we were BOTH jumping up and down. Or the time Russell came home from an away baseball game and hit a homerun and caught a great game - yep - JUMPING JUMPING FOR JOY! It must be some sort of crazy reaction I have in my brain when I get excited!

Anyway, back to the DROP DEAD GORGEOUS KINDLE. I came right up to my 3rd floor, plugged in my BRAND NEW GADGET and immediately started plicking all the buttons. Oh wait, first I called my parents to THANK THANK THANK THEM FOR THIS WONDERFUL GIFT! I could hardly contain myself with excitement, but remembered a blogger that I follow and a list of books she had just finished on her Kindle. I looked up some of her suggestions and went onto Amazon.com and found the perfect FIRST book to buy on my NEW KINDLE. The book is called SUCH A PRETTY FAT. It's a hilarious story about a woman who is trying to diet and just her regular daily life. This Kindle has so many features while I am reading, I look up words that I don't know, even how much of the book I've read. I also love how easy the Kindle is to hold to read. Reading in bed last night was a JOY!

So bye bye horrible boring TV for ME! I'm off of American Idol - I gave that show 1 week - bye bye Fatty Loser -too much crying - bye bye most every show that bores me after 9 bazillion commercials and hardly ANY CONTENT! I'VE GOT BOOKS TO READ NOW!

Best,
Jane M