photos…

Our Most Excellent California Vacation


2008-SanDiego-131

Originally uploaded by rteest42

There are a LOT of photos, folks. Like, almost 1000. But I’ve culled that down in half, and I am currently busy looking them over to try to find the three dozen or so that REALLY say Vacation. Yeah, I know– good luck with that!

We went to San Diego a few weeks back, and I was humorously saying it was to get away from the oppressive early June heat wave of Virginia. (Over 103 for days on end with a humidity attempting to reach triple digits as well) It turns out I wasn’t joking! We stayed with three different relatives over the course of the week. One plain old doesn’t HAVE air conditioning. One has it but doesn’t really use it. And the third, well it’s a new high-rise in downtown San Diego, but they were sure to show us how to turn it off if we found it too chilly at night! Seriously, our A/C has been running since early March.

And then they were tripping over themselves, apologizing for the terrible heat, it isn’t usually so hot here, we’re sorry you came out during this weather. It was around 91, and no measurable humidity. We toughed it out!

Beyond the absolute shock at the temperature, we were pleasantly impressed by how incredibly clean downtown San Diego is and I was surprised by the civil quality of the drivers. They don’t even have traffic lights at every intersection, instead trusting drivers to obey 4-way stop signs, and allow pedestrians the right of way. A lovely, if not otherworldly, experience for this New Yorker transplanted to Virginia where there are no such things as pedestrians.

And I have found a new favorite tree, the Jacaranda. What a beautiful, although I understand, fragile tree. The blooms were a wonderful splash of color on the landscape, along with the bougainvillea. Oh, and the palm trees, and the bird of paradise, and the eucalyptus, with its fascinating peeling bark. Timmy laughed and said one entire memory card was going to be trees if I wasn’t careful.

I did remember to take some other photos as well, but sadly realized as we got on the plane that at our last stop, we never did gather Betty and Herb together at the same time to take photos with them!! Sorry!!!

Our flight out was uneventful, if not delayed bizarrely. Anoki and Michael met us and took us out to dinner at a pub called the Tilted Kilt, where Timmy had a sandwich that he then thought about the rest of the vacation. Talk about peaking early!

With our vacation clock firmly set on slow, we managed to make it to the San Diego zoo around 12:30, but had sit down and chat more with the guys at lunch first. Totally fun but definitely cut into our monkey viewing time. Next time, we should arrive at opening. And go for two days. Then, maybe we would have gotten to see everything. However, it was all good, because the baby panda, Zhen Zhen, who was seriously involved in naptime lying on a tree branch, decided to make herself more comfortable. She did some complicated gymnastics on her ‘balance beam’ and turned around and posed for us!

So, for now I am going to leave you with these shots over on Flickr to enjoy. As I edit more, I will post more!

INFO dumping…

I have about a half dozen thoughts, that could be posted tonight, but I don’t know if I’m really in the mood to flesh any one of them out at the moment, so I think just a random sampling of what’s rolling around in my head would be enough (or possibly WAY too much for some)

So, without further ado and with absolutely no order to the listing….

1-flowers/animals…

2-writing

3-quilting

4-joy?

5-anniversary

6-computer

Last week Timmy and I went to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and I had a blast taking some lovely floral shots. That you can’t see. Because of(let me see) # 6. The computer. Right, recall that computer I got from Joe for my birthday? It’s great. Wonderful (no, Really Joe, i MEAN IT, Thanks!!!) However, it and I have had a difference of opinion on where I store software, whether I wanted all 110,000 messages sent to my new OUTLOOK, etc.

But now, basically, I am good to go. Except for the monitor which is small (I didn’t think it was, I thought it the size of a house, but the SCREEN part of the monitor is SMALL!!!) and the fact that my Photoshop Elements claims a file is missing and won’t upload. So, I just ordered myself Elements 6.0 and when it arrives, I will be able to share images (I mean, I COULD…but I shot in RAW, and they are HUGE…..)

Ok, that was the flowers, part one. Part two is that I planted seeds on Saturday last, and so of course the deluge came. I am relatively certain that most of my seeds were washed away, and I will see them in the gully (sorry Timmy) or in some unsuspecting neighbors yard. I am talking something like 4 inches of rain on Sunday, ok?? A little tiny seed probably didn’t have a chance. 

In any event, it was all part of my annual effort to prove I AM NOT A PESSIMIST!!! I insist on planting, I am sure success will be mine, this time. I forget, except intellectually, what it feels like in the summer, at 103 in the front southern facing yard. I forget that the weeds are barely capable of surviving the voles/moles that are tunnelling through our entire front yard. ( I know there is a difference between the two creatures, but if I google them I will have to look at some icky creature. Its ok, thanks)

I determined after 4 years ( I AM teachable) not to spend too much money on plants, because it seems they just cant make it. I bought seeds. Except for two plants. One of which was stolen. Yep, yanked up right out of the garden a gaping hole left. It was either a vole/mole or a squirrel because they left the name tag.

 Speaking of squirrels. I am thinking of opening a spa for them, right here in my back yard. Location, location, location!  I watched a squirrel yesterday collecting seeds from the scene of the crime the day before, when he or his cohorts were caught hanging by their rear legs, and swinging their bodies up at an unnatural angle in order to stick their head into the bird feeder. The cheap bird feeder I bought when I decided we would see how the birds liked our yard, which they have promptly broken by all their acrobatics.  Well, the jury is out on the birds, but the squirrels are guilty!!! 

After said squirrel gorged himself on stolen seed, he pranced into my screened in gazebo, stood on the adirondak chair and stopped for a drink of water that had pooled on the side table. Then he proceeded to climb up onto the corner shelves of the gazebo, and stretch out for a nap under the shade of the roof.

 Ok, so WRITING. I finally have completed an outline for The Big Chill,  my fan fic in progress for over a year. It’s down to 6 songs. I know (kind of) whats going to happen in each of them!! hooray!! ( wow, I finished a thought in 3 sentences!!)

Onto quilting. Ah, quilting. My other love. I have started three (shush, you DID NOT hear that) projects. And have made headway on a fourth. I am working currently on a Wild Goose Chase made entirely of batiks and black. I have one-third of the blocks finished.

I started (although I swore I would wait)  on my Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler quilt. Two blocks so far. But there are 140. So I have some time yet to go. Eithne and Robin think they will join me on this journey.

And of course I FINALLY started on the challenge quilt Eithne proposed. I have 1 of four named blocks completed. Waiting on receipt of the other 5 block names.

And then there is the TQP challenge, 2008. Which as a challenge goes is easy. Using your initials, choose three colors and make a quilt. Wonderful. Easy-peasy. Except I designed the quilt. And then messed up the measurements and cut and stitched 24 nine patch blocks too small.  No, not really too small, just too small for me to do do the alternating block as a paper pieced block. I am ready to shoot myself after the first 2/3 of one block!!! So I re-drafted the pattern to enlarge that block to 10 inches from 6 so that I would still have hair left when I was finished.  I do have to master Paper Piecing if I expect to get through Sylvia. But — easy steps.

Joy?– Or control? What causes, in this day and age, with all of the incredibly serious, earth changing events currently at play,…. what causes someone to lose their minds over the minutiae of life? Is it because they truly DON’T have any worries?? They know of no-one suffering a great illness, or worrying whether their job is secure, or has family in Iraq, or, or, or…..

Today, a customer called me. (I custom frame art) She had brought her art BACK to me to re-paper, because the BACK of the frame was wavy, bubbly, whatever. I agreed it didn’t look awesome as far as that all went, and  was flummoxed by the adhesive not sticking. I re-did them myself this time, so I KNOW what they looked like. Mind you, the frame was great, the stitching, etc, not a single complaint on any of the 5 pieces. But she swore the ‘only’ thing she could see whenever she walked by them was the gap between the paper and the frame. (I know, WHERE are they hanging anyway?? AT what angle is she viewing them?)

Her husband picked them up the other day. We looked them over and found them acceptable. Today she got home from her vacation and called me, yelling at me, wanting to know what I could do to fix them, what kind of a guarantee did we have, what kind of materials am I using? You get the picture, right? Remember, from the front they are PERFECT. It’s not as if scraps of backing paper are sticking randomly out. It is the back. The side that faces the WALL. 

So, the question I leave you with…. is this person truly that Anal? Does she really think this is an IMPORTANT issue?  Or is her world spinning so fast off of its axis that THIS is the only thing she thinks is within her control?

Anniversary… SIX, yep count’em, SIX years ago Sunday  we got married. And we agree we are so well suited. Indeed I went out yesterday and bought Timmy a gift. You see he has recently taken up Golf.

And today, I watched as he emptied out his trunk when he got home. Yep, I stood there and watched him pull out of his trunk a golf bag. And not ANY OLD golf bag, but indeed the exact one whose twin is currently hiding in the guest room, now apparently awaiting return…

Yep, we belong together!

The Ides of March….and other ramblings

well, no this has NOTHING at all to do with foreboding,  but Happy Ides of March sounds off, don’t you think? …And I am about two days too early for St Pat…but then again, I am Irish year round–not to mention a Patricia and  a Green,  so Happy St Patricks Day early….

I see my last post was for Dad’s birthday…that seems so long ago, until you figure that was way close to the end of the month–oh, heck; yeah its been a long time since I have updated.

 No real excuses. I celebrated my 43rd birthday with considerably less fanfare than my 42nd…(42 being the meaning and purpose of life and all that… you can check out last years blog for how I spent my day)

As an early birthday gift, every year I spend the weekend before at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt show in Hampton.  This year I finally made the leap and purchased a ‘real’ machine. The Viking Sapphire 830, with a 10″ throat, for me to hopefully be able to master machine quilting this year.  Thanks Nana, who left me a small sum of money, that I used for the purchase. I wanted to buy something she would approve of with the money, and not allow it to fritter away on those silly bills.

And as a late birthday gift, my brother-in-law Joe gave me a computer. Yep, really. He tinkers with them (hey it keeps him off the streets) and he cobbled together a pretty nifty set-up with a monitor that needs its own room…but free is free, and greatly appreciated….and I have almost found enough room in my studio for it. That has required the wholesale shifting of almost every item in there. Good practice for spring cleaning.

Speaking of spring cleaning, you know that my husband is reminded often that he did NOT marry me for my domestic prowess. (as this is a PG place WHY he married me is NONE of your business  LOL) I maintain that housework belongs at the BOTTOM of any list of things to do. I have a sign in my kitchen that reads “A clean kitchen is a sign of a wasted life!”

But did you know that housework is dangerous; possibly even fatal to electronics? Last week, like the good wife I am, I decided to do laundry (and NO, it wasn’t ONLY because you had to climb over the dirty stuff to get into the bathroom). Well, Timmy had been out in the garage playing cars, and had tossed his dirty clothes onto the pile. I was doing towels and sweats and in they went.

Lo and behold the next morning, who is muttering all through the house, trying to figure out where his Nano went?  Now, just let me stop for a minute and tell you that Timmy is just this side of OCD about emptying his pockets.

Yep, you guessed it. I washed Nano.

Turns out the gods were with me, and it’s not a particularly rare thing to have happen.  I googled washing your nano of course and discovered it was probably most thoroughly dead, but sit it out for a few days to dry before you bury it was the advice I located.

And do you know it worked? About 4 days after it’s tumble through the machine (it was rescued before the dryer) Timmy plugged it in and it worked! Catastrophe averted.

But I’m still a little leary about housework.

So, what else do we have going on this spring? *(yes, the nice thing about here is it’s mostly spring…my daffodils are almost GONE already)

Heading north next weekend to catch up with family for Easter, Connecticut here we come.  Spend a day in Manhattan, and possibly pop by Dad’s house on the way back to see how he’s doing. 

 Give a good thought to him when you have a chance— he just had some lung cancer surgeries, but he’s fiesty and ready for battle…. you can catch up with him and keep a closer eye on his life by checking in at http://countryjoesblog.com/ , since he shares more readily with people there whats going on medically.