Posts (page 2)
I feel like I am coming down with a cold--achy, with chills right now. I took a nap hoping I'd feel better, but no change. Have eaten a little bit, nothing appeals.
Nothing noteworthy is going on with us, just wanted to post so my neighborhood knows I'm still here. I've spent the last few days just doing a little housework and lazing around. Meant to work on my cross stitch, but haven't. Maybe tonight I will. Tomorrow will be another quiet day and Sunday we'll be out most of the day visiting family.
Well, Christmas is over for another year. Steve and his girlfriend, Shannon came over and had dinner with us and we sat and had a nice time talking. Mike made the dinner and as usual, would not let me help him in the kitchen. I baked a pumpkin pie around 6 a.m. so I was out of the kitchen long before Mike needed to cook.
This weekend's been pretty quiet. Even yesterday (Saturday) we didn't do our usual rushing around for groceries. Mike's on vacation until Jan. 2nd, so we can pick up groceries anytime. When he works I don't like to take the car and pick him up at work--if I drive in traffic I get nervous--so we do shopping on the weekends.
Yesterday Mike and I went to a mall about 45 minutes away, one I had not been to since I was 14 years old. Of course the mall's changed a lot. The mall is in Ann Arbor, which is the home of University of Michigan and the next city over is Ypsilanti, home of Eastern Michigan University. I mention this because the mall was full of college kids, and Mike kept saying "I feel so old" and "these kids look too young to be in college". LOL.
We shopped at the Apple store and then walked around the mall while eating delicious hot pretzels and sharing a lemonade. Visiting this mall was interesting. It has different stores from what we have here in our area. We plan to go back again when the mall is quieter. Mike said maybe we can buy some clothes next time.
We found out Steve has Leopard OS for his Mac laptop, so Mike decided he wanted me to have Leopard anyway-- even though I felt we should wait and buy it later. The man loves to buy stuff for me...sometimes too much. He is now talking about buying me an iPhone in the spring (I haven't asked for this) and I am trying to talk him out of it.
After we were home we just had a small meal and relaxed. Brian came home from work and wanted me to go out with him for a ride. Turns out he needed some wiper fluid for his car. He told me he's broke and asked me to buy it for him. Brian got a ticket last week ($120) so between having to save his paychecks to pay for that, plus car insurance and his car payment, I understood. I also bought him a meal, since he'd gone without food all day, even at work. I don't know how he works over eight hours on an empty stomach.
Today we went out about 8 a.m. to get groceries. Just enough for our Christmas meal and some extras. We wanted to get back home because high winds (35 mph and up) were forecast for Michigan all day today. Sure enough, when we walked out of the store, I was nearly knocked over by the wind. When we got home, we found our kitchen clocks (stove and micro) blinking, so we had lost power. We've lost power tonight--twice--while I was in the basement folding laundry. Weather's been in the 40s until today--all the snow from the storm we got last week has melted. The gusting wind is supposed to move to the east tomorrow and we might have snow for Christmas.
I drank a milk shake with dinner and now I can't warm up. It's off to bed for me, with a heating pad under the blankets.
The bottom photo is not my work, obviously. This is the completed Persian Iris Garden, completed this spring by my online friend Hans, who lives in the Netherlands. He did beautiful work. This pattern is one of three very complicated and extensive patterns I have, all of them are 'garden mandalas' designed by German cross-stitch designer Martina Weber. Persian Iris Garden is completed in 12 sections and was an online class, which Hans was a part of and I was not (I was late to buy the pattern).
I'm working on Part 3 (blue triangles and flowers) and Part 4 (columns and squares with green 'hedges') concurrently. You can see where I am in relation to the finished item. I have a long way to go but I really want to finish this in 2008 so I can move onto another project.
Please do click on the bottom photo to get an idea of the scope of the work and all the beads. There is quite a lot of 'bling' in this work. The photo does not do this work justice, as I'm finding out. There are over 3,000 beads in this and it has to be specially framed with spacers under the glass to protect the stitching and the beads.
Got up today at 6 a.m. eager to work on my cross stitch. Turns out I probably should have done something else instead, as I've stitched and ripped out the same area three times! Grrrr! I hope I can get all the way through the first part of three that I wanted to stitch today. The other two parts will end up waiting for the weekend.
Which breed of dog is your favorite? Post a picture of it.
Submitted by Melissa.Here is a photo of our late Prince. He was a beautiful dark Golden Retriever. Prince didn't always act like the brightest dog, but he really loved us. He even loved my cats, and would 'herd' them to our bedroom every night to go to sleep. It hurt us deeply when we had to put him down. Even my cats missed him for a long time. Mike and I think he was poisoned by someone in our neighborhood. Not everyone liked Prince because he was possessive of our yard and would go berserk when anyone walked by our fence. I guess he scared a lot of people. After he was gone, some of our neighbors said they liked having Prince around, because he barked a lot to alert people that someone was around. Prince loved to eat fruits and vegetables and especially liked strawberry yogurt and milk. If I put a glass of milk or yogurt on the table and turned away, he'd go after it. Many times I'd share my yogurt with him.
We are expecting anywhere from 6-12" inches of snow from about midnight tonight, a steady snow through Sunday evening. The snow totals change a little every few hours, but every weather web site I've visited (local and national) all agree that we are getting a storm with high winds tomorrow. Yipee! (That's sarcasm, folks).
Humbug? I don't know. I haven't decided how I feel about Christmas. I know this sounds superficial and shallow, but we have little money left for gifts and we still have to get one more gift for Brian and two for Steve. Why? Because we have for years, ever since they came to live with us in '86 from their Dad's. Actually, the last five years, Christmas has been worse than from '86-'02, those were good Christmases. I am beginning to get bummed out.
I just got an unexpected bill in the mail the other day. It HAS to be paid by the 20th. This is not a bill I can let go until later. So there's about $100 down the drain. We've bought one gift for Brian and zero gifts for Steve. And, we still have to mail my Dad's Christmas box tomorrow. I'm not sure I have wrapping paper to wrap his gifts. Grrrr. I wish I had a money tree in my back yard. Don't we all?
Our Christmas decorations aren't even up yet, much less the little tree we have. Grrrr. I admit, I don't feel like Christmas this year. How about I go to bed and wake up on January 2nd? Funny thing is, Mike hasn't even mentioned the lack of decorations around the house. Maybe he doesn't feel like Christmas either. I haven't asked so I don't know.
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Brian had a couple of milestones today. He made his first car payment. Then, just after he left the bank, he was pulled over by a police officer and given a ticket for an improper turn. As Brian explained it to me, the turn was improper. So now he has to pay $120.00. There goes HIS Christmas gift money.
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Brian now has a 'sort of girlfriend', I call her that because they work at Office Max together, but they don't spend time together outside of work more than once a week. Netta thinks that she and Brian are a couple. Brian tells me that he doesn't feel that way. She probably wants a Christmas gift from Brian, but he truly doesn't have the 'social manners' which would make him aware of such things, so he probably won't get her anything for Christmas. And yes, we have tried to teach him manners, and they truly didn't 'stick'. I have found that Brian is very much like his father (not Mike, Mike is Brian's step-dad). Brian will probably have to tell Netta that, because of the ticket, she can't expect a Christmas gift from him. I don't know how that will go over, but it is what it is.
Have to go, time for me to finish making dinner.
