don't feel like

I don't feel like doing anything remotely useful.
Maybe I'll spend the day reading.
And wishing it wasn't windy so I could read outside.

I've spent hours in the past week on dandelion elimination patrol (or DAP.) I dug 5 or 6 hundred of them out of the ground on Sunday and by dinner time, my wrist was singing me the blues. I think I've now got a handle on what carpal tunnel feels like. And I won't be doing anything like that again.
Now it's 50-60 and call it quits. Plus I put down weed and feed.

I hate being so mean to the poor little dandelions, but last year we got a nasty gram about them from the powers that be. Not happening this year.

What I just Did

In the interest of fairness, I just sent my daughter a link to this blog.

Will I start with the inner editor now?

I think not.

But every now and then if you read a line that says, "go pick up your room," you will all know who I am addressing...

another stitcher's five poll

1. Which do you prefer, Kits or Charts? charts, charts, charts!

2. Why? because of inferior quality of mass produced kits, but there are designers out there who kits I trust and will purchase

3. How do you organise your materials before you stitch? bag it

4. Do you do anything to the sides of your fabric before starting? hardly ever - I did have a wonderful shop that had an overlock machine and she'd do the edges for you while cutting the fabric

5. What do you do with the leftovers when your done? If there's enough fiber left and I know what it is, I add it back to my stash. Otherwise it enters the ort jar.

ahh - well this is one solution to my problem

I just had to republish with a new template.
I have no idea why the majority of info in my template was gone.
Now I need to reenter far too much info.
Will be doing it slowly, bit by bit over the coming week.

The only thing I changed last week in my template was what I was currently reading - maybe blogspot doesn't like "Reading Lolita in Tehran?" Oh yeah, and I did change my guilty pleasure. Will have to remember to include that again.

Holy Crap!

Everything in my template is missing. That explains why I can't see anything.

Hmm.

For the second day in a row, I can't see my own blog. Just a blank screen.

Can someone e-mail me and let me know if they can see it.

So my darling son is off to his first chorus competition. He'll be gone for three days.
The cat is looking at me this morning, and then looking at son's room as if to say, "don't you know one of your children is missing?" Poor kitty. He's missing his buddy.

After dropping him off last evening, the remainder of the family headed off for Mexican food. This place that I love, makes the best sangria. And grilled shrimp, stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon served with big beefy grilled mushrooms. So good.

Then DH and DD did not want to go home. So a little cross country jaunt brought us to Tower Records, where I just had to buy Margaret Cho's latest CD. And Brahm's second symphony. I must have been walking circles around that store because last night my pedometer read 11, 441 steps for yesterday and that's without a walk. Not too bad.

Dreams

This morning when my husband's alarm went off and woke me up, I realized I had been dreaming about getting ready for our wedding. It's been nearly 20 years and I somehow I was right there again putting on makeup and white hose. Waking up was like stepping out of a time travel machine. And I didn't want to leave. I wanted to be back there doing it all over again. Wish I could have fallen back asleep. Sigh.

I do still so love this man. But last night at dinner he was chewing his food so loudly that I wanted to reach out and smack him. ROFL. Instead I didn't say a word. Kind of like his snoring. He's always quick to complain about my snoring, but I don't complain about his. I'd rather have him snoring beside me than not be there.

Enough marriage babble. We've got it good and we know it.

Spring Cleaning

It is that time of year. Curtains come down and get washed. Removing stuff and cleaning under the beds. This house is not a perfect fit for me, so I am constantly pulling stuff out of cupboards and drawers and rearranging things. Yesterday I moved the cookbook bookcase in the kitchen to search for an arrant recipe that was jotted down on a slip of paper, and realized a few things had managed to find their way to underneath the bookcase and that it was rather cobwebby under there. Blech. Never did find that piece of paper so I had to go online to find the original source. Yes. I am only a half-way born organized person. I have the intentions and the motivation to start. But I don't always use my systems and entropy takes over.

It was lovely to sit yesteday and flip back and forth between the Boston Marathon and the Red Sox game. The coverage of the race on ESPN2 was no way near as good as the local coverage on the Boston station. But it was great watching those two women run side by side for so many miles. And the game. I'm not going to gloat about baseball as it's a long season. I would be gloating if the Bruins had beaten the Habs, but I unfortunately don't get that privilege this year.
In between the sports I did get quite a bit of cleaning done.

Oh yeah. And I shampooed the 15 lb cat too. He wasn't totally pleased with me, but no one was injured and he's so soft and silky right now. Seems he's a little too large to reach his back just above his tail, so he's going to get this treatment on occasion. He spent the rest of day miraculously not sleeping, but at the back door watching the wind whip the dry leaves through our yard. He was still sitting there when I went to bed at 10:00 p.m.

Late, but not too late, One Saturday Night

Kids are out. Hubby and I enjoyed some alone time. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. You know what I mean?
Now he's playing with his new DVD player.
Meanwhile, I'm killing time until I have to pick up kiddos.

Had our spring community yard sale this morning. What a gorgeous day it was. I didn't mind sitting outside chatting with neighbors at all. Made some money, got rid of some stuff. Only did this for 3 hours as after a while I don't consider it cost effective for me to sit there. Did a little crocheting between customers.

Always good to get some stuff out of the house, and I resisted the temptation to visit other people's sales.

Stopped by a Barnes and Noble later in the day and this is the first one I've been in that had absolutely zero needlework books in the craft section. Which is stupid as they had the largest craft section I've seen. They had knitting and crocheting, but nothing at all involving a needle, except for a few machine sewing books. I was disappointed because I've been having fun collecting the Dover Needlework Series of books. They did have the usual B & N selection of magazines. But I don't buy mine on the newstand. So I had to settle for Marion Cunningham's last cookbook about home cooking published in late 2003. She's my kind of woman. All about the family dinner hour, which I consider sacrosanct.

No Stitching But

I did manage a little time for crocheting yesteday. I've got a lap rug I work on occasionally. This means that by the time I finish it, my furniture will be reupholstered and it won't match. And that would be the ADD side of me. Love to start new projects, don't always finish them in a timely manner.

My server is nicely not letting me acces RCTN this morning. Tells me I don't have permission. Wha??
I'm old enough to take care of myself over there. Please, can't I go and play with the other nice people?

Funny how there is always a new way for me to frustrated while sitting at the computer.

I sat down to write a poem last night. Something that had been percolating through my brain for the last few days. I thought it was going to be personal. But it got sidetracked by about the 6th line and turns out to be about the 9/11 commission hearings. Brains really work in mysterious ways.

Should Have Gone

See my neighbor asked me to come and sub at Bunco? Right? and I didn't realize it was my EGA night. And I didn't want to let her down. Right? So I went to Bunco. Should have gone to my EGA meeting. Oh well. Live and learn.

I need the sun to shine today. Yesterday I wasn't feeling so great. Nothing accomplished. My sleep pattern has gone all wonky on me. I need to get back on track. Between daylight savings time and travelling, I'm all screwed up. I need to get some exercise. Fall asleep at a decent hour. The Bruins/Canadiens better not go into overtime again...or I'm screwed.

Plugged In

In my DD's world this is the current poll:

10 bands you'd like to see live:
The Doors
Aerosmith
Prince
Talking Heads
Led Zeppelin
Janis Joplin
Glen Miller
Buddy Holly
Manhattan Transfer
Ella Fitzgerald


9 things you're looking forward to:

writing a book
directing a play
summer and warm weather please!
Paris
love in the woods
Red Sox winning the World Series
decorating my very own house
champagne and fireworks at the beach
a hot air balloon ride


8 things that you wear daily:
glasses
underwear
bra
moisturizer
pants/shorts/skirt
shirt
rings
can only get to seven


7 things that annoy you:
ignorant people
too much wind
when people don't listen to me
ignorance
no hot water
lack of sleep
stupidity

6 things you touch every day:
kitties
water
my hair
keyboard
husband
refridgerator

5 things you do every morning:
eat breakfast
use computer
make my bed
stretch
play with kitties


4 people you'd like to spend more time with:
my sister
my sister
my sister
my sister (I only have one sister)


3 movies you could watch over and over:
Singin' in the Rain
A Night at the Opera
The Bandwagon


2 of your favorite songs at the moment:
Let's Get Retarded - The Black-Eyed Peas
Whole Lotta Love - Led Zep


1 person you could spend the rest of your life with:

I'm married to him. How lucky am I?

Waahhh!

Okay. I posted and published here yesterday, but apparently it has disappeared off into cyberspace.

What's a girl to do?

Sassarassafrass.

Too much work to do. Weather stinks. Where's my motivation?
Max, where's the camera? I'm ready for my close-up. *leering*
Alrighty, then.
I guess so more caffeine might help.

Spring Break

Otherwise known as, did you miss me?

Can't believe I was in beautiful tax free New Hampshire and I didn't get a chance to go spend moolah at Yankee Cross Stitch.

Didn't even get a chance to spend time stitching. Hmmphf. What kind of vacation is that?

Okay. I did get to spend $$$ at the Yankee Candle flagship store in Deerfield MA. Holy candle wax! that place is huge!

Followed by a slightly expensive outing to the King Arthur Flour store in Norwich, VT. Brioche anyone?

Then there were the antique shops on Route 1 in Maine...

Yeah, so my credit cards are smoking. What else is new?

Got to connect with some old friends and relatives. Had a marvelous Easter dinner. Found a new deli to stop at between home in NY and home in NH. Reines Deli in Vernon CT. Open 7a.m. to midnight for all you weary travellers on I-84. It's exit 65. This will be our new stop. We were totally bummed when the Sit-Down Diner in Danbury closed.

But the true purpose of this little jaunt, was some college visiting for DD. Smith, UMass-Amherst, Holyoke, Dartmouth. This was the dreaming trip. She's all about Dartmouth now. Got Big Green dreams. Loved the t-shirt we saw at Smith - "Smith College - Women in Exciting Positions."

Another Poll

1. When did you first start stitching?

I first started with embroidery and stamped cross stitched as a child of the 60's. Did crewel work on my clothes... But really got hooked on cross stitching in the 80's while an Army wife in Germany.

2. How long have you been stitching?

Ummm. I've been seriously stitching and stashing for 18 years now.

3. Did someone teach you or did you teach yourself?

Mostly self taught. Grandmother taught me to thread a needle.

4. Describe your first project (if you can remember!).

Stamped piece -probably from Woolworth's - a rooster toaster cover

5. When did you first realise that stitching was for you?

While trying to stitch in class in High School. Teacher demanded that I stop, fellow students stood up for me. Always been a multitasker.

That was fun!
Ahh. Woolworth's. How I loved that store. Especially if my Gram took me there. She'd let me wander all over, then meet me in the pet section. Then buy me an ice cream.