Forgive Me Coach, For I have Sinned...

I feel compelled to warn y'all about a sinful product that just landed on my G'wich Whole Food shelf...

This Saratoga Peanut Butter Company is a temptation to every stinkin' calorie burned during my pre-dawn 4000 meter swims...

Sure, I'd have more of a fighting chance if I only tangled with their Plain Jane Creamy...

Chunky...

Organic Creamy...

Or plain ole Almighty Almond Butter for my Green Monster breakfast smoothie...

But, how can that angel on my shoulder do battle against a post Masters/Crossfit ravenous devil whose Achilles has always been the peanut butter and banana combo? 

And, this Maple number just screams Pandora's Box...

Now, the White...

And Dark Chocolate need to kept behind the register alongside other sinful items such as cigarettes, condoms and booze and require proof of a completed morning workout for purchase...

While thee (insert sign of the cross) peanut butter, dark chocolate and dried cherry Trifecta should come with a mandatory penance of 10 Hail Mary's and 1000 squats...

I mean, look...I thought I was taking the safe, heart healthy route with Adirondack's cranberries, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, honey an juuust a hint of cinnamon til the big spoon came out...  

I'd be on my knees praying for forgiveness right this very moment if I didn't think my AG jeans would split...

Kindness of my sister Genny for sending me a video of goblet squats over the weekend as I'm currently starring down the barrel of about an entire episode of Alaska: The Last Frontier worth after this morning's Saratoga Peanut Butter Company indiscretion...XXOO

SAIL to SABLE

I know, I know...the fat lady done sang...

Queue the N'awlins jazz funeral and mourning for the death of summer '12...

And, even though I'm not ready to utter that four letter "f" word, I thought I'd better share my recent SAIL to SABLE find before the ship completely sails...

See that kelly green cord number in the middle? It's one of the only handful of select items I'm making room for in my wantfornothing closet over the coming months...

And, if I wasn't being so disciplined, I'd be hunting down and snatching up this winter ooo that tasted bitter white and fuschia one too...

Annnd the red and navy Patriotic Pride for November's big election...

Now, ya see that long white tunic beauty with the turquoise trimming?

And, this Smitten Seersucker one? Yeah, queue those babies for summer '13. There's always room in that closet...

*FYI SAIL to SABLE size conversion chart:

00 - xx small

0 - x small 0-2

1 - small  4-6

2 - medium 8

3 - large 10

4 - x large 12-14

Kindness of everyone for patiently and loyally awaiting my return from this high holy season hiatus. Babe, the Ti-Babes and I had a glorious summer and we're not ready to unload the beach chairs and vacuum the sand out of the whip quite yet. sighhh....The first born Catholic girl in me just hates letting y'all down but, I will only be posting on occasion. You'll never know just how much we truly appreciate all the kind emails, comments and love sent our way. We'll still be here. Just more in a juggling masters swimming/starting Crossfit/loads of travel on the docket/recently dusted off the needlework, craft, reading and cooking projects kind of way...XXOO

Grovin' In My Island Company Short Shorts

Aide-de-Camp Lizzie and I have spent the past decade on a perpetual hunt for thee perfect linen short, the more late 70's/early 80's vibe, the better...

So, my recent discovery of Island Company's linen Short Shorts most definitely merits coming off the beach for a quickie post...

Especially considering my inaugural pink pair has let me spend the last week getting my Ali MacGraw on...

And, with a White pair en route...

I feel an encore coming on...

Cue the Camel...

For my sporty Lauren Hutton moment in the sun...

Then the Caribe for pairing with my Mexican embroidered pheasant blouse...

And, I'm a très sun kissed Christie Brinkley sipping Margaritas with the crew after wrapping up an SI shoot in the Seychelles...

By the time I score the Navy pair...

My summer abs should be Pucci scarf as a halter worthy enough for my best Marisa Berenson cavorting in Capri...

*FYI, I feel like the Short Shorts run a smidge big so, if you're between sizes I'd default down. I'm usually a 6, took a medium and am now awaiting smalls. Fingers crossed my badonkadonk passes the size down muster...

Kindness of bff Kimba for confirming my Island Company as potential source of a great linen short suspicion with her firsthand account of looting their Naples store. KNEW I should have tagged along on that trip she took with my sister Julie...XXOO

Calling All Blondies...

It'd be a sin if I didn't sacrifice a PTH or two to share such a fab high holy season find with my fellow blondettes...

Actually, 'twas a Hilbil's find. I arrived at the beach at the head of June and there she was, already sportin' late August highlights...

Well, I was on that like flies on youknowwhat...

She shared her John Frieda's go blonder hat trick discovery and I barely broke long enough to take my jammies off the next morn as I sprang outta bed and hightailed it to Teeters for the stock up...

I mean, look at those highlights!

It's taking every ounce of restraint I have not to "help" my brows along too...

Thankfully, ooooone too many teenage memories of seeing Sun-In gone wrong at the pool are haunting enough to keep my Controlled Lightening Spray trigger finger in check...

God forbid this Blondilocks gets mistaken as not being au natural...

*The shampoo/conditioner combo you can use out the wazoo but, that spray is so powerful I've only pulled it out three times. Also, I can't speak for how it works on hair that isn't, or once was, naturally blond and isn't soaking up salt water and sun pretty regularly so please use with caution. Annnd, this is right about where on a script it would say in small print, Can Be Highly Addictive...

Kindness of superhairmodel Hilbils for the fab find. It ranks right up there with the Carrot Oil discovery that swept the beach in '01...XXOO

TTFN...

The definition is posted at the very top of my blog...

Summer - verb (used without object)

To spend or pass the summer.

my brother Keith, second from left, OCBP circa '93

And, that is precisely what I plan to do; spend the summer wearing out my welcome at my parent's beach house. Spend warm, June mornings cracking the Insanity whip with the bff. Spend quality family time dining al fresco or playing tennis without being tied to my computer...

I want to pass this glorious summer reading stacks of books and needlepointing at the beach or pool. Pass the evenings taking one of Babe's legendary long walks fine tuning our hopes and dreams while the sky's ablaze with the setting sun...  

I want to pass these next three months breathing in the salty air and letting my mind shift towards future goals...

While this is not farewell for good, 'tis farewell for the moment. Sooo, to the night shift nurses in Brooklyn who look forward to my 12:01am postings, to my father-in-law who now uses a Mason Pearson brush and can recognize a Reva at 5 paces, to the plastics doc who loves our Lolly and reads posts between surgeries, to my mom, when in Mexico, and Em and Hilbils, when in school, who like feeling connected to the family while miles away, to my most unprep, polar opposite pop-alternative bass player in AZ, to the West Coast gal who asked for the RSS feed I never got around to embedding, annnd, most especially to moi, who will not wake up to a bunch of compliments under the guise of "comments" waiting in her inbox each morn, I'm sorry to leave y'all hanging...

But, what a fruitful three years of posting this has been. Old friends, new friends, and, for the rest of my lifetime friends. Thank you to everyone mentioned above, thank you to dear friends who encouraged me, thank you to Mel for inspiring me, PVE for guiding me, and everyone for reading me, thank you to family who waived privacy, thank you to the other bloggers who regularly commented when I couldn't find time to reciprocate and, muchos, MUCHOS gracias to Babe and the Ti-Babes for fronting the whole gig...

So, ttfn. I'm off to summer...

Kindness of everyone for not completely abandoning ship with my hiatus. I'll still be lurking around Facebook, flooding Twitter with the Ti-Babe's mugs and coveting per usual on Pinterest. And, who knows, I may go through major attention withdrawal and be back for a fix. But, for the time being, I've got some other fish that need fryin'...XXOO

Remembering...

It's flags-in at Arlington National for Memorial Day...

And, just how fortunate am I that I'll be beaching or pooling it here in G'wich this weekend only reading of war thanks to those who have fought it for me?

So, instead of pouting cuz I don't have that beach manse yet...

Where I could be executing any of the nifty, patriotic ideas I have tucked away...

Sulking cuz we didn't make the trip home to the beach where I could be celebrating with my family, scarfing down crabs and hitting up my beloved Sea Shell City for the mini starfish needed for crafting this beauty... 

Or, grumbling about lack of time in my days to exercise my creative outlet...

I'll be cognisant that all those things are possibilities for us...

 In thanks to our fallen heroes...

 In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders Fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD

Kindness of those who have and are still fighting to preserve our freedom...XXOO