Hello Spring

If you live in a part of the country where old man winter has over stayed his welcome, and you're anything like me you are probably long over winter by now. I'm so over it, in fact I would actually love to get my hands on that groundhog.

I know my complaining about winter taking too long to get on out of dodge is nothing new, but seriously this winter was taking this whole "out like a lion" thing a little bit too far. Us folks on the east coast had the pleasure of being bombarded by not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Nor’easter’s in a row this year. Which does not make for a happy Greek Girl if you know what I
mean.

So instead of working on learning the new music a colleague sent me to learn for a new project we're working on like I had planned to do. The Mr. and I spent nearly the entire month of March cleaning up the mess that one of those lovely Nor’easter’s left behind. We are thankful it was not worse, but it did leave a big impact nonetheless and loads of fun and follies for us to deal with.

It all started on March seventh, everything was pretty much shut down due to the impending storm. The Mr. was off from work and so we decided to go play in the snow. We put our snow gear on and went for a long walk in the afternoon. No big deal, it was beautiful, we took some photos and came back inside to get some lunch. We sat down turned on the news to see all the power outages across the northeast. Then it happened, we heard a "boom" and then the TV went dead, and all the power went off.

The Mr. & I playing in the snow before the muckery began.

I looked out my window and a branch had taken out the transformer on the pole by our house.  This transformer just so happened to supply power to our entire street. So the next thing you know all our neighbors are outside talking to each other asking if everyone has power or not. So then the Mr. decided we best go get a generator just in case the storm turns out to be as bad as the weather channel had predicted. Good thing he did. We jumped in the Jeep and arrived at Lowe's just in time.

 He literally got the last of the two generators they had in stock. He got it just as two guys walked up wanting to buy two. Luckily he already had one of them on his cart, so we got it. So we got home, and after about an hour of the Mr. doing a bunch of rigging with a flashlight, extension cords from the major appliances all over the house... voila we had power. Archaic as it was, it was power all the same.  It was dark by then and the furkids (three dogs and two cats) were all looking at us like the world was ending.

So then we settled in to have dinner and hunker down for the night. I was starving by this time and wanted to eat. The Mr. on the other hand thought he should go snowplow the driveway instead. I was too hungry to wait for that to be over, in fact I was getting a bit on the "hangry" side, so I insisted that we eat first, and then he could go clear the driveway. There is a lesson to be learned here... men always listen to your woman.

So we got dinner ready, sat down to eat listening to SiriusXM on my phone when all of the sudden we hear another boom coming from the other end of the house. Only this time is it so loud it shakes the entire house. I'm thinking, "Oh boy this doesn't sound good". We went outside to find his Jeep buried underneath a gigantic more than fifty-year-old tree. Had he not given in and let me eat dinner before he went outside, he could have been in that spot and not the car. See he had planned to move the Jeep and that is where he would have started clearing the driveway, ov vey!

Thankfully he listened to me and it was the Jeep under that tree and not him. Then came the four days without power, and seven days without Internet and TV. Then the glorious task of dealing with the cleanup of the mess the storm made. See this tree that fell, it was in a bundle of four trees. So when the one went, it caused the entire bundle to be compromised. It left two of the remaining three leaning so far out to the side they were almost sideways being held up only by another tree.

 

So we had to get a bunch of tree people to come in to estimate the cost to remove them. Along with figuring out with the insurance who was going to pay to get the tree off of the car so the adjuster could come survey the damage. Who knew if a tree falls on your car the auto insurance does not pay to remove the tree. See, you really do learn something new every day, even in a Nor’easter.

After a few days we worked it out and found the Jeep had in fact been killed that night. Then came the fun task of replacing it. So we immediately got on cars.com and started running all over the Tri-State NY/NJ/CT area to find another certified used Jeep with all the stuff he had on his with low miles, yes, good times for sure. Not really because anyone who knows me knows I would rather stick needles in my eyes than go car shopping. Who also knew that in NYS when a car is deemed a total loss you only get five days of rental reimbursement. Again, more learning going on for the noggin here in this situation.

Jeep murdered by Winter Storm Quinn
and replacement Jeep. Thank you cars.com

Then came the wrecking crew we hired to remove the remaining trees that were in danger of hitting the house. See after years of trees falling every time a hurricane or major storm comes along it was time to just get them out of the way. So the same day we picked up the replacement Jeep, we had a crew here taking trees out like nobody's business, I bet they could even give Paul Bunyan a run for his money.

It worked out in the end but by now, you can imagine I was and am ready for spring. Heck I'd be happy to even skip spring and move straight to summer. I will not complain about having to have the air conditioner on all the time. I will not complain about how hot it is. I will instead savor drinking iced cups of happiness all dang day long, and enjoy my flip-flops as long as Mother Nature will allow summer to stick around.

Why does it always seem like summer goes faster than winter does?

Hope you enjoy your day not matter what the weather is.

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com

Out Like a Lamb

Time to see some Lamb weather - just sayin.

Most people who have been reading my blog for a while know one thing, I loathe the Winter.  What you didn't know that?...  Well now you do.  So why do you live in the North East Greek Girl?  I don't know and every year I keep asking myself the same question.

Is it just me or does March seem like it's taking entirely too long to get to the "Out Like a Lamb" part or what?!  Oh it definitely got the "Coming in Like a Lion" part right this year.  Let's see we've had one, two, three, nope make that Four snow episodes so far this March, and it is only March 17th.  Good grief, seems like every time the snow melts all the way off so I can finally see the grass again... guess what - more snow.  Oh goodie gumdrops.

So in case anyone can't understand why Greek Girl loathes the Winter, here are ten reasons why.

1. Too cold to go for a nice long date with my sneakers, the road and my iPod.

2. Too cold for Flip Flops.

3. Mud.

4. I have five furkids (that's dog for those who are not animal savvy). Therefore when five furkids come in from going potty ten to fifteen times a day... there are oodles of paw prints all over the house to clean up.

5. Did I say Mud?...

6. Shoveling snow.

7. Sleeping in the equivalent of an eskimo outfit and still being cold.

8. Outrageous $400+ utility bill every month of the winter.

9.  Greek Girl needs some Vitamin D.

10. Winter is too dang long... Time for some warm weather already!

Here's to March going "Out Like a Lamb" sooner rather than later.  ;D

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava :D xo
www.avaaston.com

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

It's always sunny day when the Greek Girl is working out :D I know rain is a good thing, in moderation that is. The last few days around NYC the rain has been anything but moderation, it's been more like a long slow drowning. Wahh Wahh (Que. the sad violins). According to the weather app on my iphone ~ the sun is not supposed to come out tomorrow... however it is possible that it "may" come out on Sunday.

Most of my blog friends know about my love of running outdoors, and this rain frankly is cramping my style, no pun intended. Yeah I know I could go to the gym and run on the treadmill, but it's just not the same for me. There is just something magical about lacing up my sneakers and spending some quality alone time with my ipod, the road & the outdoors. My favorite time to run is magic hour just when it's turning dusk or mid afternoon when the sun is beating down on me.... Yeah yeah, I stay hydrated, wear sunscreen, all the things a good doobie does.

With all this rain lately I have had no choice but to take my cardio workout indoors. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Well that depends on how one defines good or bad. When it is raining so much that I can't run outdoors on a cardio day, I usually do one of the gazillion DVD's in my fitness war chest. Yes I have a fitness war chest, doesn't everyone? ;D So since all this rain got me whining about not being able to run outside, it got me thinking today may be a good day to talk about what kind of workouts I do. As I receive a lot of emails asking about what do I like to do to stay in shape, etc. So here we go ~ sharing: :DD

Most of you know I have a few "fitness gurus" who are trainers I have a tremendous admiration for. You could say they are my heros, each one of them have amazing workouts on DVD & do so many things to help people become healthy: Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper, Jackie Warner, Billy Blanks, Tony Horton, Debbie Siebers, Saun T, Brett Hoebel & Chalene Johnson. Jillian, Bob & Jackie & Billy's Tae Bo's DVD's are easy to come by, they each have their own web sites & most retailers like Target also carry them. All my other fav's come from www.beachbody.com

So to date I have completed several programs from beachbody.com: Original P90, Slim in 6, Slim Series, P90X, Insanity, Rev Abs, Chalene Extreme, & last but not least I am currently checking out Turbo Fire before I start it full blast for 90 days. For me I just feel better when I workout it is that simple. Had I not been a little Greek Girl who at one time had a little extra baklava hanging around, and been born skinny like my sister's that may not have been the case. But alas, I have developed a serious addiction to endorphins (you know God's medicine, that makes you feel good) and end up working out 5-6 days a week. Hope you check out some of the workouts & find one that is right for you. Of course I just know your ipod will be loaded with Ava Aston Tunes to help push you through the hard workouts ;D just sayin.

Blessings ~
Ava :D xox

If You Don't Like The Weather Wait 5 Minutes

Don't forget your umbrella!

I travel a great deal and it seems like where ever I go there are always some old timers who love to have the same pat answers for questions that stumble out of my little Greek noggin.

Me: Wow, the weather is so unpredictable here

Old Timer:  We have a saying here that if you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes

Umm, that is what I was told in HooHoo, West Virginia, Waxahatchie, TX, Early Bird, Florida, Bumpass, Virginia, Embarrass, Wisconsin, Dead Horse, Alaska, Pig, Kentucky, Bullfrog, Utah, Snap Finger, Georgia, The Villages, Florida, etc, etc. The last time I was told that I timed it and it was actually more like 1 hour and 43 minutes in between major weather shifts. So for the old timers to be factually correct in Cluttsville, Alabama then they need to say, "If you don't like the weather here just wait 103 minutes."  Ok, I am a stickler for details ~ what can I say?

Another long-winded conversation about the weather with long-time residence of any community can start from a simple converstaion like this:

Me:  Wow, it is sure hot out today, I think I need to swap out my sneakers for my flip-flops.

Old Timer #1: Oh shucks this is nothing. You outta been here in the summer of '56. It was so hot the paint was peeling off the fire trucks

Old Timer #2: I remember the summer of  1943 when it was 120 degrees for 13 straight days

Hot enough to melt the paint off of fire trucks, seriously? 120 degrees for 13 straight days? I don't think so. Sounds like someone has been dipping into Mr. Bricks McRib sauce.

Blessings,

Ava

xox