Happy Festivus!
Hope everyone had a nice holiday! We are still in south Florida waiting for my parents to arrive out of Denver…tonight if everything goes well. The first few days here we had nice weather, so we’ve been to the beach and drove down to the Everglades. In the Everglades we saw lots of alligators (some even really close!) and dolphins uh, frolicking in the waters the bay just north of the gulf of Mexico on our boat tour of the 10,000 islands in the Everglades National Park. Since then we’ve had two days of rain, so had a low key Christmas day including a delicious mixed grill dinner and shopping in the rain today.
Since the rain has kept us in for the last two days, I’ve gotten lots of knitting done on my kitty pi bed, I might even be ready to felt it when I get back. Though I might need to make it a little bigger than the pattern as Loki is a husky cat (he’s just big boned, really!). We also played Euchre, which is a northern midwestern game, which Indiana people take pretty seriously and I think is designed only to confuse me!
Am thinking of my friends and family near and far. I hope all of you had the holiday of your dreams.
Loki, family, holidays, knitting | Comment (0)Tricked II
This time we got tricked by the weather. My parents were scheduled to fly on Friday, but haven’t yet made it out of Denver due to the huge blizzard. Their flight was cancelled for Friday, and were finally lucky enough to get their flights changed, but not until Tuesday, so we’ll just have to celebrate Christmas late. My mom and I were lucky enough to get our library shifts covered on Saturday (thanks Mimi!), and get our flights changed, so we can extend our holiday a little bit and I can show them around south Florida. Neither my mom or Andrew has been to FL before and after all that snow, I’m sure they could use a little beachy weather.
While we are missing Loki, my inlaws got a mini white schnauzer named Gabe who is very cute. We’ll have to take lots of doggy photos. Actually he is still quite a bit of a puppy with all the hilarity that ensues from that. I brought my knitting project with me and after searching down a knitting store here for the right sized circulars, it is going pretty well. There is a lot of sports on this weekend, so it will be perfect to curl up in the same room and just knit.
Today we went to the beach, saw some dolphins and ate lunch at our favorite waterside restaurant. Tomorrow? Maybe a trip to Tim’s favorite…the Everglades.
Loki, family, get togethers, holidays, knitting, travel | Comment (0)Trickery
Tricked! I don’t think that it was allergies at all…but insead a cold that never left me feeling sick except for the…well…extreme congestion in my face and chest (I know you came here for phglem stories!). Still taking the claritin as a precautionary measure, but feeling much better.
I got the last of my holiday crafting done this morning…can’t put up photos until that gift is given, but I do have another holiday quilt on my flickr page that has been received and hopefully used already! After the New Year I am all set to sew Ashley’s quilt together as all the pieces are cut and ready to go (well except for I have to trim the framed blocks to 16 1/2 inches which I was all set to do the other night except for I remembered that they also needed ironing before I trimmed and the thought of plugging in the iron…was. just. too. much. after I had already ironed and trimmed 40 4 1/2 inch blocks for the inner border.). Thien also helped me start knitting a felted bed for Loki at our recent knit night at our local coffee shop/bar Ruta Maya downtown last week. That might be my project for the holidays to keep my fingers busy, though somehow, somewhere I need to track down size 11 24′ circular needles before I go too far.
The leaves on all the trees are just turning and falling, but at 80 degrees it doesn’t feel like Christmas yet!
Loki, crafts, family, holidays, knitting, travel | Comment (0)They’re back!
Yarr. They don’t usually appear until later in December, but a north wind yesterday brought some cedar down from the Hill Country. I am not looking forward to the next three months of allergies. IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER. Really.
But I do love the cold weather and wearing scarves and sweaters and thick socks. It means that it is really soup season. In south Texas, soup season is precarious two month affair, so I have to take advantage. Not that I am above making hot soup in 90 degree weather. I love to cook, and there is nothing I love to make more than soups. One of my favorite wedding gifts (which ironically is one of Tim’s least favorite because it is really heavy when you are cleaning it) is a huge bright yellow Le Creuset pot from my aunt Jean Marie. Other than the pot love/hate conflict, I would have married Tim for no other reason than he loves eating soup, and will happily eat it almost every night. This week I am trying a new Cream of Broccoli recipe.
There are also lots of quilts to make, books to be read and cards to mail. I did get all my packages out in the mail today, so that was exciting. Events this week, and mailing the packages all over the country made me wish once again that everyone I loved lived in one place. We are all so spread out, and it would be nice to be close to everyone that you love for the holidays, for hard times and for laughs. But a far away relationship takes work, and maybe that can sometimes add to the quality, strength and depth to that relationship.
Anyway, I am trying to get Tim to add a photo element to my posts which would be very exciting. That way I can show you all the little photos that I take that don’t really always add up to a whole set.
Drive Safely
I love birthdays, if only because your coworkers treat you to yummy food all day, and you get phone calls, emails and instant messages from everyone far away. I logged into my email this morning and found this message:
Everyone at DefensiveDriving.com wishes you Happy Birthday and reminds you to drive safely so you receive many more birthday wishes
in the future. We look forward to serving you for many years to come, whether you need to dismiss a traffic ticket or you just want
to reduce your car insurance rates. Thank you for making DefensiveDriving.com the # 1 rated online defensive driving course in
Texas since 2001!
Happy Birthday!
Sincerely,
Your friends at DefensiveDriving.com
I mean really, I couldn’t wish for a nicer birthday email!
holidays | Comment (0)Taupe 3, Eggshell Interior
My four day weekend is flying by! That is what happens, I guess, when you spend 2 1/2 days of it painting. We started off with the idea to finish painting the hallways, but gosh we bought so much paint. And had all the stuff out…so we started painting the living room. And anyone who has been to our house know what the living room is like. The huge almost 2 story wall with the skylight? Yep. It looks amazing and I love the color, but we are wiped out. Almost everytime we paint, I am amazed at a)how long it takes, but also b)how much I love it afterwards and can’t believe that we took so long to get around to it.
And because becoming vegetarians wasn’t enought of a lifestyle change, we also downgraded out cable today to basic. Yep, 25 channels insead of the 100+ whatever we had before. On the down side, Tim will miss his SportsCenter, but on the plus side, we still have HGTV and Bravo (when does the new Project Runway start anyway?).
Speaking of the veggie bit, it has been going incredibly well. We have spent more time cooking together, planning together and having fun making food than we had in a long time. Today, we had marinated grilled portabello mushroom burgers, grilled corn on the cob, and some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers out of our garden. So good! We’ve done a 20 minute tofu stirfry, grilled veggies in pita, veggie pizza and soy corn dogs (really good! well if you like corn dogs…). I can’t wait for colder weather (for many reasons), but so I can start making chili and soups!
Hope everyone has a great holiday tomorrow!
Home, San Antonio, food, holidays | Comment (0)Tone of the Year
Chuc Mung Nam Moi! I remembered today how to say Happy New Year in Vietnamese (though I am sure I am not pronouncing it properly what with the tricky inflections). My boss says that the tone of the first day of the new year sets the tone for the whole year, and if that is true, then I am set for the year of the dog. I was in a good mood all day and felt great. I talked to my parents (always the Sunday phone call), watched some good tennis (yay Federer-er), sewed quite a bit on AJ’s block of the month quilt, read (Stalin’s Folly), and even got some good laughs in with Tim. I was ever-so-slightly tempted to sweep up after the sewing as it produced many a little thread on the floor, but didn’t want to chance it. What with sweeping my good fortunes away and all. Or for me pretty much any excuse not to clean. All in all a good day.
I also started my 2006 block of the month quilt for Ashley this weekend and have my February class this week which I am looking forward to. After working for a year on one quilt, a whole different (REALLY different…Andrew fabrics to Ashley fabrics different) set of prints, patterns and colors is refreshing.
My allergies are a little bit better, hopefully I can get back on the bike and hit a few more things on the list.
holidays, quilts | Comment (0)Who Us?
No, we aren’t obsessed with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, why do you ask? We watched it a few weeks ago and I was a little suprised at the progress (albiet somewhat hidden and only hinted at) messages. Its okay if you look different because our differences is what makes it all work. And it is okay if you are gay, er, I mean a dentist at heart. Because the differences is what makes it work.
Tim and I are staying here for the holidays, getting the little things done that we’ve ignored, and generally having a low pressure, fun relaxing holiday. I’ve got craft projects lined up (some knitting, embroidery, softies, quilts, etc), some recipes to tackle, books to read, movies to watch. Currently slightly obsessed (though much later than the rest of the world) with watching the BBC version of The Office. Which of course led to the look up of the Mahna Mahna song that is stuck in my head. Doo Doo do do do (mahna mahna).
Oh, and speaking of obesessions, if you are obsessed with blogs like me, and don’t know about RSS feeds, call me. I can tell you about my love of Bloglines. Call me.
holidays, web | Comment (0)Cedar, Again
Came back from lovely temperate Florida to be struck down with my seasonal cedar allergies. Yes, in the middle of winter. The trade off to it being in the upper 70s here in December is that I can’t go outside to enjoy the mild days. Actually, staying inside doesn’t help either. I am all about the Claritin, Vicks and the nose strips, which are incredibly sexy but work wonders!).
Florida was lovely, easy days of sunshine, the beach, palm trees and down time. We went to one of my favorite places, the Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island and the Edison-Ford Winter Estates. Both were beautiful and amazing, but you can really tell that there has been a lot of hurricane devestation to the flora. Dead trees, stripped of their leaves, or at the Edison Ford Estate, stumps litter the grounds. Sanibel Island in general isn’t as lush as it once was. I can’t imagine how long it will take to all grow back again.
Finishing up my Christmas shopping…it is so close all of a sudden! I sent out about 1/3 of my gifs to friends, including hand knit scarves and the cowboy quilt (which I will post pics of soon!). I am slowed a little by an achy shoulder (aye, my bursitis ), but still making some plans for the days off I have around Christmas….
family, holidays, travel | Comment (0)Naughty or NIce
I love when you are shopping for gifts and the exact perfect gift almost leaps off the shelf at you. It is like the gift was made with one specific person in mind, a person who happens to still be on my to-buy-for holiday list. Too bad it can’t happen everytime, and I shall not even dare to hope for the perfect-gift-nirvana moment everytime because I might ruin it entirely. My holiday knitting is also done, washed and pretty much ready to go. And the one christmas quilt is in its finishing stages.
Tim and I are pretty much coasting through…we’ve done all our decorating. The theme is a mix between stockings, Star Wars ornaments and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (old school style). I am on the look out for more push puppets…you know the small wooden toys where you push the bottom and they fall over. I love those.
And now the sad news, I am no longer “supposed” to “blog” at “work”, which is really going to hinder my “regularly” scheduled posts. Same goes for IM, which is actually really sad because I do regularly communicate with through yahoo with a few of you. But I will be online more often in the evenings, so we can chat then.
crafts, holidays | Comment (0)
