What's in a name?

Happy Friday!

2008-07-25T14:33:00.003-04:00

The camera charger remains in hiding so I don't have a stitching photo to share so while sorting through the picture archives I realized that in 6 weeks and a day I'll be heading back for a brief stay at my favorite vacation spot (except for those requiring a passport, cruise ship or my niece Kelly) in the whole world...Universal Studios in Florida. Ohboyohboyohboy...

You have a good weekend - see you next week!!!

Senate Spy

2008-07-24T08:57:00.006-04:00

The building I work in has no name, it's an old house and the 7 of us working here are overflow staff from the main office so our location is referred to by address, which is on Senate St. Outside my window is a little sort of parlorish-garden-yard with several large trees that support lots of birds and squirrels and one day I caught this little guy playing in the tree and every now and then he'd stop, to rest I suppose, and look in my window. Finally, he just stretched out for quite some time and kept an eye on the window. I took this picture from my window just about this time last summer and yesterday I noticed he (or his successor) was back - just hanging out, being sure we were busy working over here at Senate. Since I didn't find my camera charger so I could show you some needlework, I'm sharing a little of my Senate Wild Kingdom. Maybe I'll designate Thursdays as Wild Kingdom day...

About cross-stitch, sort of...

2008-07-23T15:27:00.012-04:00

My internet adventures began when my roommate bought a PC in the mid-90s (yeah, I seem to start everything later than everyone else...what's your point?) I typed Teresa Wentzler (she who makes color do magic things as near as I can tell) in the AOL search box and fell into bulletin boards and the cyber-community of stitchers. What fun! People were stitching all over the place! I even de-lurked every now and then. And I'm fairly certain that stitcher's blogs brought me to blogs in general. After months of reading and watching people's progress on their assorted projects, it occurred to me that maybe all I needed to actually make some stitching (or knitting or tatting or sewing or insert hobby/task ) progress is to make myself accountable. Publicly so. Neat. I'll start blogging too. A year or so later, I decided that it really didn't matter what I named the blog, the writing was the thing so just get on with it already. So now three or four months after finally starting a blog, I'm well on my way to being the same type of blogger that I am stitcher (knitter, tatter, seamsress etc) - too casual to accomplish anything so I'm starting today to make myself more accountable. The only problem is that my camera battery is dead, the spare battery is hiding in the wilds of my belongings along with the charging cradle. So I don't have any photos of my works, but I do have a photo of a box of goodies I received in an exchange from Carol. Ok, now I've forgotten how to add photos... brb... Ok, got it.

Pretty neat eh? The stitched Quaker swan pillow is really exquisite - every bit of it, from the cross-stitching to the finishing (looks like lace joins front to back rather than a plain old seam). Then she also sent along three skeins of floss, some banding to stitch on, that spool of blue ribbon you see and some flavored teabags. And packed it all in that pretty pink box - just a whole package of fun. Thank you Carol!

Tomorrow, assuming that tonight I find the spare camera battery or the charging cradle, I'll start the being accountable part of being a stitching blogger...

Just because I don't expect to be online over the weekend...

2008-07-03T14:47:00.008-04:00

Happy Independence Day to the USA!

I hope you and yours enjoy a fine holiday weekend!

How time flies...

2008-07-01T16:46:00.007-04:00

I'll tell you how time flies - whoosh! It's a month - or more - later. But, I couldn't let today go by without a tip of the hat to our neighbor to the north...

Happy 141st Birthday Canada!

Later...

Happy days are gone...

2008-05-05T15:47:00.003-04:00

We lost a family member a week ago - Happy belonged to my sister and her husband for 10 years or so, which turns out to have been not nearly long enough. You know how everyone knows their dog is the best ever? Well, I've known a few best dogs ever and Happy absolutely is a worthy member of that distinguished society. The Happy shaped hole in my life will ache for sometime to come.

Just a little more from Orlando...

2008-04-18T14:47:00.002-04:00

It could be called Mmmmmythos. While dessert wasn't even the best part - it is the best looking. It might seem like faint praise considering the cafeteria-esque quality of most of the park eateries, but Mythos has been voted Best Theme Park Restaurant (worldwide I believe) five consecutive years and we're bettin' it'll soon be six.
Amy, Kim & Mike on Dr Doom's (No) Fear Fall...no really, it's them, but the zoomed version wouldn't save very well.
Recovering at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville - shortly after the volcano blew - which I'm guessing is why the camera was focused on Mike's glass rather than us. Of course, this was post margaritas so maybe we really were that blurry.

Well...in another 5 or 6 months I hope there will be another installment of Judy goes to Orlando to share with y'all...

Later!

More from the vacation trip...

2008-04-18T14:32:00.003-04:00

Amy, Kim and yours truly in Hollywood. The makeup show in the Pantages Theater behind us was entertaining as always, especially Kim's contribution when she attempted to pull the knife from the star's chest and he scared the bejezus out of her.
You might want to think twice after asking Mike & Amy for directions...
Dodging rain brought my peeps - Mike, Kim & Amy - to the Caro-Suess-el

Yet another week flies by...

2008-04-18T14:06:00.008-04:00

And Mardi Gras continues at Universal Studios in Orlando - if only my photography skills could convey the colors and fun of the evening parade. Then came two whole days at the parks...which I plan to share whenever I figure out how to add some more photos. Stay tuned...

This time tomorrow...

2008-04-11T16:03:00.002-04:00

WooHoo!!! See y'all (all 2 of you I think...) Wednesday!!!

And another 5 or 6 days just fly right on by...

2008-04-10T15:21:00.000-04:00

kinda' like I feared would happen. Oh well, bygones...

Tuesday was road trip day. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, The Yarn Harlot came to Charlotte (I've seen several poetical nods around the internets to the Harlot in Charlotte) to promote her new book and Lqisa and I went up to hear her talk and pick up a book or three. Everything I've read about her was right on the money! She's an engaging speaker, not only witty and droll but thoughtful too. And she's charming as well - makes time to speak to everyone getting books signed, takes a photo with everyone who asks, makes an appropriate fuss over the babies in attendance, takes some photos for her blog and then gets the names and appropriate links all matched up - and then actually posts to the blog without the traditional (at least it is around here) 5-7 day gap! If she comes to your town, go see her! Be sure to take your knitting, she especially likes to see first sock attempts (and FOs too) and while the whole rest of the crowd knits away the waiting time, you'll have something to do (unlike a certain couple of SC road trippers who showed up empty-handed).

The next countdown is on now for this weekend - only barely 1 day's work left and then we (Amy, Kim and I) hit the road for Orlando and until Tuesday next week it's all about margaritas, Mardi Gras (a little late) at Universal, margaritas, Universal rides and fun and - yep, you guessed it - more margaritas...

Later!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

2008-04-04T12:33:00.000-04:00

Battlestar Galactica is back! Well, almost, tonight at 10pm. I'm quite looking forward to it. Have you watched it? If not, I really think you don't know what you're missing...don't let the Sci Fi label keep you away. It's that and much more, a character driven, mythology building, social/political commentary, action packed science fiction super story. Lucky and Chris recommend it highly.

I figured this would happen

2008-04-02T11:28:00.000-04:00

I'd forget to post day after day after day. And then (over)think about what to post. So, I'm gonna' go with a photo - only 10 days till my little vacation to Orlando!!!

At last...

2008-03-28T15:59:00.000-04:00

Seems that I've figured this out about three (or more) hundred times and yet, often when embarking on something new, I must stew and fret over it for ages before I remember - oh right, just get on with it already! So I'm just getting on with it already, with nothing witty, pithy, worthy or wise to post. But, posting I am. Shannon will never believe it.

Later