sooner or later

Sometimes in a frenzy, sometimes in awe, we opened our presents on Christmas Eve. Many of them handmade with love and thoughtfulness. The store bought ones selected carefully to please the recipient no end.

My English muffins from scratch turned out great. The grill king did his magic in the evening. We toured the neighborhood to see the lights. The travelers are off today on visits to family in other states. The weather here is beautiful and crisp. We are quietly getting to know our new toys today and enjoying the sweet goodies leftover from yesterday. Later I'll try another new recipe, crab cakes with wasabi mayo and we may even go to the movies.

I've been emptying a bobbin every day at the loom and feeling very virtuous about it. Also, finished off the coffee cup cuff that J started yesterday. One last gift for the coffee enthusiast in Fort Worth. I also got a little time at my work table. All in all, I'm enjoying the long weekend and not looking forward to going back in to the office. At least, things are at a stand still because everyone else in the world is taking long vacations and no business other than retailing is taking place. The phones will be quiet. Hopefully, no crisis will occur until 2008.

I have been using Picasa Web Albums to host my photos here since I was in danger of using up all my alloted free space on blogspirit.com with photo albums. But I only just downloaded their photo software (Picasa2) today and I am blown away by the way it works. It has lots of interesting features and editing capabilities and the fact that I can now upload an entire pile of photos instead of just five at a time is just the ultimate in time saving. Wish I had known that before I uploaded the cruise photos - I would have done all 283 of them instead of just 50 or so.... well, maybe that wouldn't be a good thing from your point of view?

Both our cars were dead this morning. I was two hours late for work and the grill king had to catch a ride with a co-worker. His was "fixed" while we were on the cruise but died about a mile from home. When he called me to rescue him, mine wouldn't start. So he called his garage to tow in the little truck and come give mine a jump start. The suspense is killing me. Will mine be dead again this evening when I try to start it after work? Film at 11:00. Seriously, I will take a photo of the darn thing sitting there not running if it comes to that. This could be the year I make it into a raised flower bed. I could easily calculate the amount of potting soil necessary. I'm thinking maybe, bananas in the middle seat so they could grow right up through the sunroof, daisies on the dashboard, and ivy trailing out the liftgate in the rear.

You never know when opportunity will smack you in the face. Wow, a new vehicle, a new job, the open road, I'm a very experienced driver ... exciting to think about.
You know I'd like to own a new vehicle and my loom would certainly fit in the back of this truck. Wish I could read that phone number....

Seems like this past week went by kinda fast. The hours passed slowly but the week was gone in a flash. I haven't slept very well lately, keep waking up and tossing and turning.

We celebrated the grill king's birthday - he grilled the steaks. Corn on the cob was cheap and sweet as candy. The key lime pie didn't have time to set up - party was moved up a day and then I burned the first crusts so we started over and kinda rushed the recipe. But key lime pudding is just as tasty. Fortunately key limes are in season at just the right time as it's his favorite dessert.

I bought him a high tech toy and ordered a handmade card from etsy. The card hasn't arrived yet, but it will be cool even if a little late - a little book of squirrel haiku and illustrations. The toy is a turn table. We have some old record albums and the old stereo system is not hooked up properly any longer (but of course, we can't get rid of it....). This is one of those new turn tables that transfer records to MP3 files and comes with software that is supposed to clean up the noise of very old records.

The most amusing thing about it is - once you've done all your records, you don't need it any more, right? So we're passing it around the family and then maybe it will find its way to eBay. Of course, we won't get rid of the record albums ever. We live in The Museum of Useless Stuff, you know.

I had lunch on Friday with a weaving friend. We went to the Moveable Feast near my office. She applied for a position which I think would be perfect for her. This could work out well for everyone concerned. I can't help but look forward to this on so many levels.

The granddaughter is sleeping over and all that includes. A long bath, cartoons on TV in the morning, pancake making, and some little art project that is fun and quick to do.

It was sunny outside my window at work most of the afternoon but we had a hideous morning. Pouring down rain and thunder and lightning on the way to work. Then about an hour later, the lightning strikes the transformer in the alley behind us and we all jump about ten feet in the air. It's the same transformer than has been fried before. Luckily we have a medical facility in the building, so we can get bumped up higher on the repair schedule at the power company. Back up in less than an hour.

We're working along fine for another hour then, BOOM, it gets hit again and we are out worse than before - more circuits are off and power backups are buzzing from every office. Our elevator may be fried this time and the power company takes more than an hour to get here and another hour to get it taken care of the second time. We had kind of a happy hour in our kitchen with the building managment and some other tenants stopping by for crackers and dip. We had enough flash lights to loan out to people going to the rest rooms and we even had to loan our UPS scale to the clinic cause they weigh patients before and after dialysis. The bottled water delivery guy said he'd try and come back Friday after the elevator gets fixed. It may be a while before we have bottled water again....

My boss was out on a site visit and I thought I would get caught up finally.... no such luck. Well, tomorrow is another day, Scarlet. Her daughter is on her way to Puerto Rico for a friend's wedding and she's in a panic because there's another storm heading for the islands. The daughter calls me from the airport and doesn't even know what airline she's on - evidently can't find her paperwork, and I have to look on her email, fortunately she calls between blackouts or the girl would have missed her flight.

I started watering the lawn yesterday after work 'cause we've had three really hot dry days (up to now!) and the grass and plants looked like they would be dying in about two minutes. I forgot about the water running while I was upstairs on the computer. About 10 pm, it's pouring down rain and my husband volunteers to go out and shut off the water for me. So the grass is really watered now, you could say....

Cheez, what a day. It's supposed to rain more - bands of storms still in the gulf. Fortunately I didn't have to drive home through the worst of it.

I think I need to go buy some hurricane supplies, we've been clearing out the pantry lately and it's looking bare.

I stayed up last night to catch up and I'll be sorry today. But it's an easy day. The weavers' meeting is tonight. I turn in my entries for the conference and I'll get a little knitting done while I listen to the reports on what is planned. I am so looking forward to this one.



This was the big accomplishment for the evening however. I am making afterburners as Peg likes to call them. Sweetened pickles with a jalopeno kick. You start with a gallon jar of pickles. Throw out the juice. Slice 'em and then begin layering them back in the jar alternating with a sprinkling of sugar and slices of jalopenos. There was pickle juice everywhere. So a bit of mopping was necessary in the process. I used about two pounds of sugar and about 30 ounces of pickled jalapenos. They make their own new juice while they marinate for about two weeks. The sugar is almost dissolved this morning. You have to turn the jar every day. I had leakage this morning - glad I put it in a bowl. Some people use more sugar. For me, I always skimp on the sugar.

The garden around the other tree trunk is finally planted and yet another potted garden is done. I like to combine plants in big pots instead of just one in each. So this last one has a big bromeliad with pups on the side and some varigated lariope and some of the fiber optic sedge grass. I have a feeling that I'm going to live to regret planting that grass but then again it likes to live around ponds so maybe it will be okay to encourage it in my swampy back yard. It's not too tall so at least it won't dwarf the flowering things in the back.
Yesterday, another round of the altered book round robin arrived and it's a collection of cards from recycled food boxes. A lot of very 3-D elements and interesting vintage look. Not my usual style. Should I follow their lead? I have a few weeks to work that out.

This weekend the weather is predicted to be perfectly spring-like. We'll be trying to see the entire International Festival with two kids in tow. And then possibly a sleepover and another grilling event.

Whoa, it's messy in my two rooms upstairs. Looks like I've been burglarized. But actually I was trying to organize one thing and it always winds up being messier than ever with one tiny speck of improvement that only I would notice or appreciate.

Yesterday, the other shoe dropped at work and so it was hurry up and then deliver this. I was elected. Everyone else took one step back, I guess. Ha! no, really the destination was near my daughter's house so I volunteered and then, oh, by the way, "I won't be coming back today," took the rest of the afternoon and played. Went to dinner with the kids at Chili's and took half of an enormous chicken mesquite salad home to my husband who enjoyed it and said it was just enough!

J was busy with beading when I arrived and H was happy in his chair at the table eating baby cookies. A momentary calm surface in an otherwise typically chaotic household with two children. We sat in the gazebo for a moment and enjoyed the breeze in her garden. It's still sorta spring here for another couple of days, I think. But the mugginess is beginning. Her plants are all doing very well.

I took some sugar snap pea seeds to a co-worker since I've been sharing my bounty from the garden. "One for you and one for you, two for me." It's just a tease but I only collect four or five a day and the leaf fungus is starting... part of the mugginess setting in, I guess, so the plants are doomed. I will pull them out and put black plastic down for a couple of weeks and start again. I have my basil seeds ready to spread for the second crop.

I've been searching through my notebooks on my weaving projects lately. I'm looking for notes to put on the entry for the conference and I am realizing how much I am NOT weaving lately. Depressing. I want to. I need to. I have a swatch swap due in August and I came up with a plan on the long drive to work. Have to make notes. Now. Double weave, painted warp in the center of each sample about 3 inches wide, black border all around each painted center. If I have enough warp ... I could use them as ATCs (3.5 x 2.5) or Postcards (4 x 6) - the size is adaptable depending on how much I weave between the horizontal black borders.

My mind is weaving faster than my fingers.

Rain woke me up last night and since I was exhausted when I went to sleep, it must have a real good storm. The water aerobics class really makes it easy to just drift off as soon as my wet hair hits the pillow. The good kind of exercise.

I made another list of what I have to get done. I was feeling a little frantic. Good thing I looked at my priorities as I now realize I have to finish the entry by this Saturday and deliver it as the due date is coming and the collection point is across town and I won't be making that drive after work.

At work, I'm doing fill in stuff waiting for the other shoe to drop on a project on a short string. Hurry up and wait. It's good to get the mundane out of the way, but it's a bit hard to concentrate when others are racing madly around trying to finish their part and I can't really help. I put together a tall glass shelved tower to put the boss's orchids and violets near the warmest window in the office. It looks great and I know the orchids are gonna love it. When they bloom, we switch them out in the front office. I always have orchids to look at. I should sketch some sometime....

Going out now to pick some more sugar snap peas.

Made my list for today and it looks like Saturday will be a blur of activity. The photo to post for today would be a cloud of dust in my wake. If I get one tenth of the stuff on the list done and still enjoy the weekend it will be counted as a success. Meeting tomorrow afternoon - a social high point. Granddaughter will spend the night unless she's done something really bad already to rule that out. She's always good for at least one memorable quote of the day. Trouble is, my memory doesn't even hold onto these jewels until I can get upstairs to turn on the computer.

Last night in search of the ultimate Indian cuisine, we came up empty. A couple of our favorites had closed and most don't offer a buffet at night. I really like to try a bit of everything... the flavor variety is so wonderful. So we wound up at the Thai Pepper. The Pad Thai noodles there are delicious. Today the grill king will be in charge. I asked him to clean off most of the salty rub from one of the steaks for me. I'm trying to keep from swelling up like a balloon every weekend. Someone send me an email to remind me to take a water pill later, just in case.

I also have to check my entry forms and see how high that will run up my blood pressure. If I have only a week left, then add 10 points; if I've missed the paperwork deadline completely, add 30 points while I compose my email saying the postman ate my entry form, can I send in another. (Update: chairperson is holding up nicely, allowed me to send in my form which is dreadfully late as long as I fill out the form correctly and remember to include the check.)

Life at work is chaotic. I have run out of fingers to count off the crisis. Everyone is experiencing family emergencies in the midst of all these deadlines and so we're running short staffed and those who can show up are distracted with worry about non-work problems. It's a mess there. Late yesterday, a couple of us were proofing stuff neither of us is really familiar with... and it took both of us and a lot of notes and flipping back and forth in books to be sure we covered all the basics. We were both quietly hysterical at the fact that it took our two brains ten times as long to do this task. But it had to be done - and we were the warm bodies available.

Go plant something now. It's spring today here in Humidity, Texas. And that's what (hum along now) we will remember long after Saturday's gone.