Anne's House

The Never-ending Socks: Done!

2012-01-13T08:49:00.001-05:00

These socks for Fern are finally done!

Tubular cuff bind-off.

What I Did Over Christmas Break

2012-01-04T10:13:00.001-05:00

If you scroll down, you can see the picture of this when I was laying it out on the conference room table. I spent a lot of time over break sewing the blocks together. I don't have any space large enough in my house to get a good look at it, my bed is the closest. The next step is to put on the borders. I'm hoping to borrow a friend's long arm machine to quilt this monster. With borders on, it'll be 116" x 90"!

Quilt Math

2011-12-07T10:38:00.008-05:00

I got my sewing machine back from the shop yesterday. I had it in for semi-routine maintenance. The 'dashboard' has service symbols when it's time for an oiling or professional service. I oil my machine far more often than the light indicates. Maybe that's why the service symbol doesn't come on, I just bring it in when it's been a while.

Last time I had it in for service was in April of 2008. The tech provided me with some statistics from my machine's computer.

General sewing time: 25:39
Stitches: 6,802,510
Time using the embroidery module: 1:23
Embroidery stitches: 502,400
Time quilting with the stitch regulator module (BSR): 1:36
BSR stitches: 5,490,480
Total time: 28:38
Total stitches: 12,795,390

Since I bought my machine used, all the embroidery work was done by the previous owner since I don't have that part.

I asked for the same statistics this time, almost three years later.

General sewing time: 99:37
stitches: 2,572,174
Time using the embroidery module: 1:23
embroidery stitches: 50,240
Time using BSR: 1:43
BSR stitches: 773,830
Total time: 102:43
Total stitches: 3,396,244
Total time turned on: 6233:51

OK, so do you see the problem here? The first set of numbers is off. By a lot, a factor of 10. I'm guessing there's an extra zero at the end of the older counts. After I adjust for that what puzzles me the most is how I could have sewn 224,782 stitches with the BSR in seven minutes.

I guess it's a new form of quilt math I'm not aware of.

Quilt in Progress

2011-12-05T10:57:00.000-05:00

Charm Pack Baby Quilt

2011-11-01T11:31:00.002-04:00

This is a baby quilt I'm making for one of the guys in the office. I just need to put on the binding, it's already quilted and washed.

I made this from a charm pack, a pack of 40 or so 5" squares.

Keeping the order of the squares in tact, I sliced off 1.5" off each side, then the top and bottom; then shuffled the bottom center square to the top of the stack and reassemble the blocks. I then arranged the blocks on point in a zigzag pattern in the same order as the squares from the original pack. I added setting triangles and two two-inch borders. The checkerboard border was made from two fabrics that match some in the original pack which I got separately. After quilting, it finished to about 30" square.

I got to use a friend's long-arm for the first time to quilt this. It was way fun, even for a beginner. I wish I had the space and money for my own long arm. In the mean time I'll keep renting/bartering time on other machines.

Layout Challenges: Help!

2011-10-29T22:00:00.002-04:00

view full image

I Hate Autumn

2011-10-17T08:54:00.003-04:00

I love autumn, really, the low-angle light and dramatic skys, the changing colors, the cool crisp air, beautiful. It's probably my favorite season.

But I hate autumn.

We northern hemisphere homosapiens are genetically programmed to add insulation in the fall for the upcoming winter. The number on the scale gets larger every time you get on it. What doesn't help are the holidays: Kevin's birthday (cake), Halloween (candy), Thanksgiving (pie), Christmas (luncheons, cookies, more pie), New Year's eve (chips and dip), Super Bowl Sunday (more chips, more dip), and Valentine's Day (chocolate). You don't get a break until March, and by then the damage has been done. The hips are larger than ever and you're on the brink of having to buy yet another wardrobe.

So I've decided I'm cutting out carbs now. Well, actually, I started Saturday. No pasta, no candy, no bread and butter, no cereal. I plan on getting a jumpstart on counteracting this weight thing.

As I type this, I can hear the guys in the next cube talking about the bagels that were brought in today. Sheesh.

I can do this. Who's with me?

Jack....Jack....

2011-10-10T07:14:00.000-04:00

How to turn an iPhone photo into a magazine quality image

2011-09-25T12:12:00.001-04:00

My lunch of pesto cavatappi from Noodles & Company.

Original image

Cropped

Added saturation and contrast

Added point of focus

Playing With an App Called Snapseed

2011-09-21T18:28:00.000-04:00

Playing With Photo Editing Again

2011-09-19T09:15:00.000-04:00

The dark side

2011-08-27T10:59:00.005-04:00

So I did it, I crossed over. I opened a twitter account.

I'd been resisting for a long time, I really didn't need yet another thing to obsess about, but a couple things perpetuated my decision to cross over to the ~~dark~~ twitter side.

First, my husband seemed to be having too much fun reading his feed, laughing at the funny ones, and occasionally quoting to me the best.
I want to have fun too!

Second, the author of The art of iPhoneography, the book I just bought, talked about posting photos to extend your creativity. She suggests twitter.

I created my twitter account, and picked some folks to follow. Then came the old tree-in-the-forest question: If you tweet with no followers, is it a tweet at all? Then a strange thing happened, I got followers, people I didn't know, and not the folks I followed. It is kinda creepy.

Last night I set up another account on Instagram. It's a social network for photographers mentioned in the iPhoneography book, a place where I can post pictures and have them exported as tweets. Already, I have a couple followers and I'm ok with that. I'm not sure what the difference is, why one is creepy and one isn't, I'm still trying to identify what it is.

Anyway, here I am, exploring the dark side.

Myrtle Beach -circa 2011

2011-08-19T15:05:00.005-04:00

While I was at Urban Outfitters yesterday, I bought a book called The Art of iPhoneography by Stephanie C. Roberts. I'm finding it to be a great resource for the camera and apps and taking images with my iPhone. And a great source of inspiration.

I've just read through the first couple sections and now am inspired to take and post more photos from my phone or iPad. Like all my new projects, I'm gonna do this everyday! So, that is the first one, taken from the balcony of our beach condo just a little while ago.

This was taken with the ShakeItPhoto app on the iPad.

July

2011-08-03T13:42:00.004-04:00

Ok, July is gone, but the heat lingers.

I still haven't watched Howard's End yet, the netflix disc taunts me continually. I did see the rest of the Harry Potter movies before the premier of HP-VIIb. I took Kevin to see the show at midnight. It was fun, getting caught up in the whole first-night frenzy, but I really want to see it again in a normal way, no craziness, no kids in school uniforms. Dan hasn't seen it yet, either, so I'm thinking "date night!" Every time I think I have an open evening, our darling daughter gets a call asking her to work, and no daughter means no supervision for Kevin.

Speaking of Kevin, Dan and I are discussing getting him a cell phone. There are many times when he's out on his bike, for example, and I want to get a message to him, like, "come home!" Last month when Dan was in California I'd hand my phone to Kevin so he could type out a message to his dad. Sometime he'd rebel, sometime he'd answer Dan's questions, and sometimes he'd just type back what was asked of him. Written echolalia. I'm afraid, on the other hand, he'll lose it, or it'll get taken from him; he won't be responsible for it, or he'll manage to run up a $600 phone bill. Fern managed to rack up an extra $120 last month, so anything is possible with The Boy.

I have a stack of Girl Scout vests I've been ignoring and many quilting projects that should require my attention. I've set a goal of finishing one by the time state and county fair entries are due so I'll have to get it done. I need to get another quilt done by October so it can be included in a book being published by the woman who designed the patterns. Add the monthly sewing obligation of the swap we're doing in my bee. Sheesh.

OK, that's enough for now, just listing it all out makes my head hurt.

Movie Time

2011-07-07T10:16:00.004-04:00

June was British Movie month here at Anne's House.

I didn't plan it that way, it just happened. In no particular order (because I can't remember the order), this is what I watched:

Moulin Rouge!, ok, it's not a British film, but it's got the guy who plays the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in it and everybody knows Obi-Wan's British. I was surprised how much I liked this, even if it's a story-within-a-story-within-a-story story.

The Secret Garden featuring Maggie Smith as Mrs. Medlock. The book was a free download on my kindle so I got it, then wanted to watch the movie. It's a decent adaptation, but the book is better.

Maybe I should have called it "Maggie Smith Movie Month" because she was also in A Room with a View with Dame Judi Dench, which I'd seen before, but was confusing it with Howards End in my mind, which I have all ready to watch from Netflix. Both have Helena Bonham Carter so you can see my confusion. And as a bonus, Room has three fully naked men in it.

Our beloved Maggie was also in Harry Potter I, Harry Potter II and Harry Potter III. Since Harry Potter VIIb is opening next week I've been trying to catch up on all the movies.

Helena Bonham Carter was also in HP-V, HP-VI, and HP-VIIa but I can't list those this month.

This list of movies reads like a complicated family tree. Dame Judi, was also in The Importance of Being Earnest with the wonderful Colin Firth.

The last movie on my June list is Calendar Girls, delightful film with Helen Mirren and Julie Walters. And if that name isn't familiar, she was in all the Harry Potter movies as Molly Weasley.

I'll put together a July list sometime in August. What have you been watching?

Kevin

2011-07-04T12:00:00.001-04:00

July 3, 2011
I'm sitting on the beach at Rehoboth, DE watching Kevin play at the edge of the surf. He truly is an amazing child. And not because I'm his mom and am paid to think that. If you don't know Kevin, he's my eighteen year old autistic son.

Kevin is always happy, or nearly so. He finds joy in all that he does. He is perfectly happy sitting in the surf on a crowded beach on a holiday weekend where most of us would get antsy with the crowdedness. He scoops sand from a wet hole in front of him and pats it on to a mound beside him. Scoop, pat, pat, pat. Scoop, pat, pat, pat. He is never distraught when a wave laps up to fill in his hole and erodes the mound. He continues his mission when the water recedes. And for an hour or more he continues like that, building his shapeless mound, which gets larger as the afternoon wears on and the tide gets lower. Perfectly happy.

At home he can be happy riding his bike through the neighborhood, or playing with legos for hours on end, or commandeering my iPad and slinging birds at silly green pigs. He is happy where he is and never complains of boredom; he takes care of himself.

But more than that, he's amazing because he wants for nothing. He is very hard to shop for because of this, however. He just doesn't want anything. He's not the type of kid who peruses the Sears Christmas catalog and circles six things on every page. I'm reminded of a scene in Harry Potter I where Dumbledore tells Harry about the Mirror of Desire, it shows the true desire of anyone who looks into it (Harry sees a family, Dumbledore sees warm socks) and anyone who is truly happy will see only himself. I think Kevin would see only himself.

It amazes me that in this materialistic world we live in, I have a child who is so happy and joyful with what he has.

Progress. Well, Sort Of.

2011-06-10T10:49:00.003-04:00

I started a post last week after Memorial Day, but never got to finish it. Now I'll add in more current news and click "publish post" already.

The weekend was hot and also productive. Dan and I got most of the garage cleaned out and offered up many items up on Freecycle. If you're gonna have to find a mouse in the garage, it's better to find a dead one. Dan scooped it up for me. He's such a great husband. We bought Fern a new bike so she can ride to her summer jobs when she needs too.

I got Being There watched. I hadn't seen it for over 30 years and I'd forgotten a lot. It was still funny, but different than I remembered. The phrase "I like to watch" still makes me smile.

I got the badge sewing done on the vest I'd had for a while. I'm glad it's out of my hair. However, two more arrived in my in-box so I'm not done yet. I'd really like to quit, but I enjoy having the extra cash, it buys fun things like my iPad.

I can't remember what else I got done on Sunday. I'm sure it'll come to me later. Monday was hot was glad to be able to hang out at AM's house for her pool party.

This past weekend I flew solo. Dan went to the Eastern Shore for golf school. He's been so frustrated lately because he can't get any better even though he plays a lot. I took Fern to take the SAT on Saturday morning. I got everything ready the night before, pencils, calculator, admission ticket and snacks and told her she needed to take her ID. So, on the way to the test I ask her if she had her ID, and, no, she didn't. I waited in the parking lot for her text telling me if they let her in or not. Yes, she got in, but I needed to bring her ID back before the end of the test. After that it seemed I spent the whole day driving around for this and that.

I've downloaded SimCity™ for my iPad. Of course I got hooked right away. Sims are fickle, stupid people. In my current city I've gotten my population up over 1.2 million people, then for no reason, they move out and my population goes down to 450,000. They they realize the schools are not over crowded and move back in. They complain 2% residential tax rate is too high, but they were fine with the 4% I had set yesterday. They are harder to figure out than teenagers. I tried to upload a screen shot of my city with no luck. I'll try a different method later.

This weekend I'm off to Towson University for the Maryland State Special Olympic Games. Kevin will be swimming again. We got "kicked" out of the dorms this year. The coaches want me to help chaperon, but don't like the fact Kevin tended to wander a little too far for their liking an the block party last year. Thing is, Kevin can wander whether or not we're staying in the dorms. I'm not looking forward to all the down time between races (and the delightful cafeteria food), but Kevin loves it so that's all that matters, right? Maybe I'll try to take some sewing projects with me so I don't get too far behind. Again.

Posting Again - More Randomness

2011-05-18T10:00:00.001-04:00

I'm behind.

Again.

Story of my life really.

I've got sewing homework due tonight I haven't finished. I am supposed to make 18 blue exchange blocks. I've got 14 blocks cut out and partially sewn. Then the bobbin ran out and I quit. I should have been working on the blocks this weekend but started a strip quilt instead. Oh well, never could get my priorities right.

I've got a girl scout vest that needs attention.
Not to mention it's that time of the year when I'll be getting a lot more vests to work on, too.

Back in March I planted a half pound pack of pea seeds. They came up nicely, growing wonderfully, I was looking forward to yummy peas right off the vine until the rabbits had a salad.

Fern is interviewing at a private high school today, she is tired of the general population at Bowie HS. for example, she's taking the HSAs this week, those minimum standard tests needed for graduation in biology, government and English, and some of her fellow students who don't take the tests seriously cause disruptions. She's just tired of it all. I don't blame her.

Ever since she took the PSAT in October she has been inundated with recruiting propaganda from colleges all over the country, most I'd never heard of. Her SAT equivalent theoretically was 1800, is that good these days? She wanted to take the SAT this spring instead of waiting until fall of her junior year so I signed her up for the session in June.

Kevin has a swim meet this weekend. Its the PG Special Olympics county meet, which is usually a big one, most counties attend, but for some reason only 47 athletes from four counties have registered so it should be over quickly. That means in the noon-2 window instead of the 4-5 window. They will be running the long races, though so that does take a lot of time. But still, fingers are crossed. I'll be there all day to time races. If anyone needs volunteer hours, I can hook you up.

Then we're off to the State Games in June and swim season will be over. yay.

I've broken part of my molar and I probably ought to have it checked out. It doesn't hurt, but it's kind of achy. Sheesh.

Being There

2011-04-18T11:26:00.002-04:00

I started my college life at Urbana College in Ohio. Second quarter my freshman year a new transfer student moved into my life, for the next two years we were joined at the hip. I introduced Josie to Piper who already lived across the hall from me in the dorm. Piper was a sophomore, but the three of us hung out together when our schedules allowed.

At the end of my sophomore year I decided on yet another major, pre-pharmacy, and transferred to VCU to better my chances to get in to pharmacy school at MCV. I never got into MCV and settled on Geography instead. Josie, in the mean time, studied graphic design and Piper majored in elementary education.

Time goes by, as it usually does, and I didn't keep in touch with the other two as I ought've. A letter here and a phone call there lead me to learn Josie woke up one day and decided to go to dental school, got accepted at OSU, and eventually bought herself a practice. I've always admired her for that, completely changing her course in life without looking back. Several years ago I learned she had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and it had spread.

Last June when I was in Columbus for the Perl conference I got to have lunch with Piper and we got to catch up, but Josie was out of town and we didn't get to see each other. Piper filled me in on a lot of Josie and her condition, how she had sold her practice the year before, how her leg was broken but they were unable to insert a rod to fix it until the chemo round was done, how she couldn't ride her beloved horses. I kept telling myself I really needed to go back out and see her.

Saturday night I got a call on my cell; Piper was on the caller ID. My heart stopped. I knew it wasn't good news. I answered the call, Josie was still alive, but barely. Hospice had been brought in and her husband didn't think she'd last more than a couple days. Do I go now? Do I wait for the funeral? Do I want to keep her memory healthy and vibrant, or ruin that picture with a conscience-clearing visit to see her, near death, not guaranteed to even know I was there?

That little voice in my head was telling me that she would die soon, today or tomorrow, and her service would be next Monday. Don't worry about seeing Josie now, it' won't matter. Go to the service next week and be there for Piper.

When I was struggling to come up with a title for this post I tried out several possibilities, then typed 'Being There' to describe the relationship between friends. Then I just stared at it with a lump in my throat. How could I forget? Being There, the 1979 Peter Sellers film, was our favorite movie that first quarter together at school. The little theater in town didn't get a lot of new releases so Jos and I saw this movie several times. We quoted it all the time and laughed, just laughed, at all those silly things that struck us funny, our little inside jokes that lasted for years. Not until it was written and staring at me did I realize the weight of what I'd typed. How had I'd completely forgotten all about the movie until just now? Life continues to surprise. And Soothe.

What Kind of Designs?

2011-04-15T13:29:00.004-04:00

I just noticed today blogspot/google has a stats tab on my blog dashboard. I like stats, I do work for a statistical agency after all.

I clicked on the tab to find out what blogger offered. I already employ two other free stat services on my blog, how does blogger's stats compare?

Blogger's stats are simpler in content and to use. The summary page shows a graph of page views, traffic, audience and posts; the detail pages show more info about each category. I clicked on the traffic page and viewed a list of referring URLs, those pages that point to my blog, this very one you're reading. How did you get here, anyway? I see on the list a variety of sources, Google is to be expected as is other friends' blogs. What I didn't expect was what was listed second on the all-time list: tattoodesignsvault.com with 69 instances.

I'm still scratching my head over that.

I Forgot the Best One

2011-03-29T07:59:00.000-04:00

From the weekend, Sunday morning Kevin burst into our room declaring "No snow! No snow! It's spring!" to which I turned to look out the window only to see the trees covered with the white stuff.

If I Tweeted

2011-03-28T09:36:00.003-04:00

A weekend round-up tweet style:

10:35p
Taking home Fern's BF. Why can't his parents drive more often?

11:30p
Finished two GS vests before bed, glad to get them off the stack.

7:00a
Why am I up so early on a Saturday? Oh yeah, Special Olympics State Games for basketball.

11:30a
Will these opening ceremonies ever end?

12:30p
First game finally started, down @ half 18-10 against a Howard Co. team.

Sad loss for our player development team: 34-28 final.

Second game, a win against Anne Arundel Co. 20-10 for the Bronze medal.

6:30p
@BJ's with Dan; bought two grape vine plants; need to figure out a place to plant them.

9:30a
Kevin wore his medal to church.

11:00a
@Noodles & Co for Kevin's favorite lunch. Trying to oust the current mayor on Foursquare.

12:30p
Off to our guild's quilt show, working the admissions desk 1-2; white glove 2-3;

Don't think my quilt got the best display location but it wasn't a winner anyway. Still sad.

4:30p
Back home in time to see the last minutes of VCU's win over Kansas. Go Rams!

6:30p
Finished another GS vest, 4 to go.

7:45p
Picking up Three Brothers for supper, then home to watch Amazing Race.

8:30p
Wish I hadn't lost my VCU class ring, maybe I need a new VCU shirt for my collection

11:30p
Really wish I were sleeping.

A Few Vacation Pics - The Netherlands

2011-03-24T08:59:00.003-04:00

A working windmill near Zuiderzee

A view of many bridges over a canal (forgot which one) in Amsterdam

Another canal bridge

Tulips at the flower market in Amsterdam

Sew Fabulous Quilt Shop Blog: March 2011 Giveaway

2011-03-23T10:31:00.002-04:00

I entered a giveaway (and thusly promised to post about it here.)

Sew Fabulous Quilt Shop Blog: March 2011 Giveaway....And An Apology!: "Happy March! I apologize for this post being so late. If you read my last blog post, A Very Unfortunate Rotary Cutter Accident, you'll und..."

Dinner at Blue Pepper, Amsterdam

2011-03-14T17:44:00.004-04:00

This is thee courses of our five-course dinner at Blue Pepper restaurant. I forgot to take pictures of the other two before they were gone.
First course was duck, fish pâté, and crab with mango.

Second course was seafood soup served with lemon.

The third course was lamb satay and chicken satay.
The fourth course was the main entree, the Rijsttafel. The first picture is of the condiments, the second one is the selection of curried meats and seafood.

The last course was dessert with fermented rice pudding with coconut ice cream, pear cooked in blue curaçao, and mango salad.

iPad Cover!

2011-03-12T07:31:00.000-05:00

30 Hours

2011-03-11T09:28:00.003-05:00

The suitcase is still empty. I have not packed any clothes. sheesh. I have been packing my carry-on bag, got my camera and tour books together, extra memory cards and knitting needles (just in case I stumble past a yarn shop).

I guess I didn't want to pack too soon, but now I'm leaving tomorrow for a week with my mom in Netherlands & France and I haven't even considered wardrobe options. Except for which coat to take, I have thought of that. And the jury is still out on that, too. I'm afraid of being cold and damp one day and too hot the next.

I've been talking to Mom most everyday this week, swapping information, quizzing each other on desired destinations. We'll have a full day in Amsterdam of free time and a half-day in Paris. The D'Orsey is in renovations; a lot of good stuff at the Louvre is out on tour (I'll have to see Mona at another time); Versailles is too vast to see in a single afternoon; our front runners are currently Musee des Arts Decoratifs and Musee Marmottan (good Monet collection).

I think I need to do laundry tonight. Right after I stop at the Apple store.

Try and Try Again- A New Month's Resolution

2011-03-01T08:31:00.005-05:00

On January first I decided on a resolution, to lose five pounds. I amended it to a "new month's" resolution, to lose five pounds by the end of the month. The very next day I was up a pound and a half. Not a good start. Now I had to lose 6.5 lbs to reach the goal.

At the end of January I'd lost 4 lbs. I set the goal again for February. I wasn't very clear if it was for a new five pounds, or just to get to the original goal. Vague was good. The ultimate goal is ten lbs from the high point, but I wanted to break it down in monthly chunks.

A week into the new month I'd lost another pound and it was staying lost. A week later, the weight pretty stable-neither up nor down, I saw an orthopedist who said I had tendinitis in my right bicep and prescribed an anti-inflammatory to be taken on a full stomach. You know what that meant, I'd forget to take the pills with dinner so I'd have to have a hearty snack at bedtime which lead to regaining all the weight I'd lost.

Now, here it is, the first of March, I'm ready to try again. I'm off the anti-inflammatory, my shoulder is feeling better, I have no excuse. I weighed in this morning at a lower weight than I'd had for a couple weeks, but still above the goal.

So, here it is, my goal, down in writing. I will lose the rest of the original five pounds by the end of March. (This will be harder than you think, I'll be Europe for a week this month.) I will keep it off in April and start working on the next five in May.

It really bugs me when other women say I look fine, that I don't need to lose weight. I always thank them, but I know, my pants know I do. I need to learn where the breaking point is on the food intake now that I'm, uh, not a kid anymore. I need to retrain my brain about not needing snacks. I'll never be a size 4 again, but it sure would be nice not to ever become a size 14. Hence, the goal, to break it down, a couple pounds at a time, no crazy crash diets, get it off, keep it off.

Latest Quilt Project

2011-02-22T10:27:00.004-05:00

This is what I worked on at quilt retreat this weekend:

This is a project for my dear high school friend in Florida. She has floor-to-ceiling closets in her bedroom with a 25" space between them. She commissioned me to make something eye-catching to hang there. I'm going to add a couple borders to this, maybe even my "trademark" interlocked knot design I used on the quilt I made for Mom shown below.

This technique was developed by Lisa Walton of Dyed and Gone to Heaven, an inspiring quilter/beader from Oz. I'd love to meet her one day.

One Block Wonder

2011-02-22T10:03:00.000-05:00

This is the quilt I finished for my mom last year, the one she plans to redecorate her bedroom around. It won Viewer's choice in the large-pieced category and a Vendor's choice ribbon at our guild's show back in March. It'll hang as an invitational quilt this year.

Take Two or Three

2011-02-15T08:40:00.003-05:00

Ok, that didn't last long.

Pre-planning, that is, for our trip to Europe next month when Mom and I go to Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris. I figured out We'll have the most free time in Amsterdam, the first day we are there, the day we'll probably be most tired and jet-lagged. We land at 07:30 and have unscheduled time until the welcome reception/orientation that night. Our hotel is just a couple blocks from the Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum, so we'll have plenty of options.

The rest of the days are scheduled with tours and sight-seeing trips except for an afternoon in Paris when we can take an optional tour of Versailles. I'm torn between that and checking out Mona at the Louvre. Or going up the Eiffel tower (our hotel is two blocks away!).

I won't be able to fine-tune plans until we get our travel documents with a more refined itinerary. Which means I'm back to having that empty lost feeling I wrote about a couple days ago.

OH! but wait....
I'm going to our quilt retreat this weekend. I really really need to start a packing list for that. I'm sure I'll forget to take a project that needs attending too. I have so many started and neglected projects, sheesh. I tend to overpack and be too optimistic about how much I will get finished. Then I start something new and end up having even more projects than I started with.

I'm also running a game on Saturday so I cannot forget to take all I need for that, including prizes.

And I promised to bring a soup for Friday night dinner.

I'm not teaching fabric dyeing this year, Lisa is, so I don't need to pack anything for that. I must not get sucked into that. Must. Not. Dye. Fabric.

I really could use another brick-colored fabric, however, for a current project I really need to finish. It's a quilt to be included in a book a fellow quilter is putting together, and the perfect color would add so much....

ARGH! Must. Not. Dye. More. Fabric.

Well, that worked well, I haven't thought about missing my favorite literary characters for that past several paragraphs now. D'oh!

Obsession Replacement

2011-02-14T10:54:00.003-05:00

I found something to fill the hole left by finishing the Harry Potter books: trip planning. Mom and I are going to Europe for a couple days next month, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris. We'll be on an organized tour but will have some time to ourselves for sightseeing and most of our meals will be on our own as well.

I had some 40% off coupons for Borders so I bought small city guides for Amsterdam and Brussels/Bruges over the weekend and want to buy a book on Paris today. I like to find the hotels and the itinerary stops on the maps, then I can get spatially oriented. I also like to do searches in advance for specialty shops I might like to visit if I have time, like quilt and yarn shops. Oh, and don't forget shopping for Belgian chocolate. I'll pass on the Belgian lace though.

I try not to go overboard with the extras, though, free time will be shorter in reality. The trip is advertised as a 7-day trip, but when it comes down to it, it's really only five days of actual touring and the other two days are travel days. I'm not upset, all tour companies and cruise lines do this, make a trip sound fuller than it is. I just can't go overboard on a list of little side trips.

Next week: I'll start on a packing list.

HP

2011-02-11T15:10:00.000-05:00

If you thought I meant HP, the computer company, just move along now.

I'm rereading the Harry Potter books, much to the chagrin of my husband, "They are kids books, you know" ... "Haven't you read them each a dozen times already?"

Well, no. In the beginning I read them to Fern at bedtime, it was our thing. I'd put on my best UK accent and read a chapter or two a night, it was a cozy time. When a new book would come out, we would read it together, then I couldn't stand the slow pace anymore and plowed ahead on my own after her lights went out, only to reread those sections again the next night.

Fern was too old for a snuggly reading bedtime reading routine when Goblet came out, so I ended up reading it only once, same with the subsequent volumes. Then there were the movies. When the book is fresh in your mind, you pick out all the things they left out of the film, and rightfully so, there is just too much detail to cram into a reasonably lengthed production. But as the years go by, the visual memories created by each movie replace the memories created by reading the story in the first place.

So now, I've been reading all seven books again, back-to-back-to-back (forsaking other leisure activites, quilting) and have really grown attached to Potter and his friends. I'm also amazed, reliving the whole story, about the amount of details and clues JK Rowling left for us along the way. [I could also point out inconsistencies over these seven years, (the thestrals, for example) but I'm not going to.] If you've read the series yourself, you know the importance of the horcruxes in the final book, yet she mentions two of them in passing several books before the last one. The major hinging point of the final showdown at the end of book seven is given in book six, the clue to how Harry can face He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named with a shred of hope.

Yes, to Dan's other point, they are not deep pieces of literature, they are not kept in the adult section of the bookstore, but I enjoy them just the same. I've tried to figure out exactly why I love these stories so much. And I can't, exactly. Yes, there's the feeling of parental hope that the children grow up smart, strong, and loved, and yes, they are fun tales of good versus evil. I guess maybe, it's like getting sucked into Lost for all those years, living vicariously through others.

Currently, as I write this, I'm about a hundred pages from the end of the last book and I expect to finish it tonight, the last big battle between Harry and Vol-, you know who. I better have some tissues with me, I hate the death scenes.

And now, I've got about a hundred pages in which to prepare myself for the end. I'll need to get back to my quilting to keep my mind off the loss of these fictitious ~~people~~ friends....Until the movie in July, anyway.

Giveaway… Happy Day for All

2011-02-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

Giveaway… Happy Day for All

Pass the Popcorn, Please

2011-02-02T08:56:00.003-05:00

Over the last couple weeks I've actually been using my Netflix account (instead of keeping the discs for 4 months at a time) and have watched four foreign films in a row. Three were the "Dragon Tattoo" trilogy. (Truth be told, the third in the trilogy isn't out on DVD yet, but we watched it on pay-per-view.) I hear Hollywood is making an American version of these movies, but I bet they won't be as good. Watching a movie that takes place in Sweden is much more authentic when it's shot in Swedish.

Watching sub-titled films is also interesting because you've got to watch. You can't just wander up to the kitchen to fix a snack keeping an ear on the movie, all you hear is Swedish dialog, and unless you've interned in Stockholm, you've got to hit pause to get that snack. You still have to have the sound up when you're reading the subtitles so you can hear the intonation and emotion in the voices.

The forth movie was "Bread and Tulips," an Italian film made in 2000 about a woman who gets inadvertently left at a rest stop while on a vacation bus tour. She decides to go to Venice before meeting back up with her family at home, but she misses the train home and the rest of the story unfolds. Italian men yell a lot. I never read the subtitles with as much force as I heard from the voices. Americans wouldn't do it justice.

I can't remember how this film got added to my Netflix queue, I'm sure it's been there for years and finally just bubbled to the top. I think a French spy spoof is next. That should be fun. More subtitles!

What have you watched lately?

Snack Time

2011-01-27T14:38:00.004-05:00

So, this morning I awaken to loud, pleasant chirping. The chirping sounds really close to my window, like the source was in my bedroom. I glance at my window and see a brown bird, a wren maybe, between the glass and the opened screen snacking on the dead stink bugs that were laying on the sill. The bird flew off before I could snap a photo and I looked back later and the entire collection was gone.

An Odd Collection

2011-01-25T13:18:00.005-05:00

I'm tired of stink bugs. Do you have them? Ever since Christmas I've been escorting out or flushing down about four of the little buggers a day. I can't figure out how they're getting in. the windows have been closed for months now. Maybe they got in back in the summer when I had a window fan in our bedroom and have been waiting stealthily until now to come out now to drive me crazy. I escort them out my window. I've amassed quite a collection of frozen stink bugs on the window sill now.

Oh Dear. They could be in hibernation, only to come back to life in the spring bug us once again.

They scare Fern, which I find funny. It's just an ugly bug, herbivore at that, no bite, no sting. They don't even smell very much. But they are annoying.

Finally....

2011-01-12T12:35:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's been so long since I've posted. The busy season here at work is almost over. I'm a front-end survey design programmer for web-based surveys and I have three mail-outs this month. That means, I deliver three different systems, each with a different client, over the next couple weeks.

I keep wanting to add to this post with a summary of Anne's Household activities, but I can't even string together more than a half a thought at any given moment. I'll post this now with hopes to come back soon to post more.

Another Clothes-Line Basket, this time in blue

2010-12-25T17:58:00.000-05:00

Dyed Clothes-Line Basket

2010-12-18T20:05:00.000-05:00

Finished!

2010-12-02T09:11:00.000-05:00

Quilt Retreat: Project #1 done

2010-11-19T19:46:00.000-05:00

What I did on My Birthday

2010-11-17T07:35:00.006-05:00

I'll just skip right to the end of the day: Dan took me to a Wizards' game, floor seats, row C behind the bench. This is what I saw:

Javale MaGee in the top two, Gilbert Arenas in the bottom one.

I ended up taking 160+ pictures of the game. It was fun to be that close, the game seemed to fly by faster than when I'm in Dan's usual upper level seats.

I gotta get ready for work, maybe I'll get to post more later.

My Latest Batch of Dyed Fabric

2010-11-13T00:06:00.000-05:00

Hitting the Peanut Jackpot

2010-10-25T18:10:00.000-04:00

Knitting a Moebius Scarf

2010-10-18T08:49:00.003-04:00

This is the moëbius scarf Fern and I are working on.

To make this, provisionally cast-on 150 or more stitches on a 36" circular needle, size 9-13, with worsted weight yarn. Knit across in your desired pattern (seed stitch, lace pattern, etc.). Now, remove the provisional cast-on and keep knitting your pattern. You will have 300+ stitches on the needle and the circular needle cable will loop around. The first few rows are the hardest because there's no give yet. As you keep going, your piece will get wider and wider. Cast off when you get bored or run out of yarn.

Another Pair of Socks

2010-10-15T12:19:00.001-04:00

I finished these the other day. I love using the worsted weight yarn, the socks knit up so quickly.

Now Fern and I are working on a knitted Möbius strip scarf. The hard way. The easy way is to knit a flat strip and when you're done twist it once and join the ends. The hard way is to knit all at once on extra long circular needles. I'll have to take a picture of it. It's not hard once you get it started. I'm making her work on it too, so it'll be hers when it's done.

I'm knitting again...

2010-10-08T09:37:00.005-04:00

These are scrap yarn footies made from the left-overs from all those socks I knitted for Christmas presents three or four years ago. After Fern shrunk the wool+bamboo pair I just finished (to a size a four-year-old could wear), I had to make another pair with a blend that won't shrink.

These are the first socks I've made toe-up. I used a provisional cast-on and a short-row toe, both firsts for me. I like learning new things, keeps me young. Right? My daughter's ice skating coach thought I was 39. Love her.

I have too many unfinished quilts to be back into knitting. Oh well. I'll get tired of this soon.

Probably right before that large ebay order of yarn arrives. Right?

Brrrr

2010-10-05T08:54:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was the first really chilly day so far this fall and when I got in the car to go home the tire pressure light had come on. It seems to come on every year on the first chilly day of the fall. So, today, I wore a jacket to work and put air in my tires.

When I took the girls to the beach a couple weeks ago I bought a ball of wool+bamboo yarn and knit up a pair of socks. I hadn't been in a knitting mood for quite a while and when I finished with that pair I managed to buy two new sock knitting books. One of the books had several patterns using two or more colors of yarn. I've never done anything with more than one color so I tried it out:

I got through one iteration of the pattern and stopped. Knitting with two colors was easier than I expected, but it was also harder. Controlling the two different yarns wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be, but the knitted fabric doesn't stretch like pieces made with one color do. I need to relax the yarn that's not being used at the moment, if it's too tight, the piece doesn't give. It's hard to pull on socks that don't give. Next time I consider a sock pattern I won't shy away from the two-color ones.

Weekend Stuff

2010-10-04T08:29:00.004-04:00

The weekend ended with more rain. We had gotten 5.12 inches from Wednesday evening to Friday morning. Saturday and Sunday were pretty, but the rain started right after I filled the tank on the ride back from Winchester and the rain gauge collected another half inch over night.

Fern and her boyfriend and I went out to Winchester for my mom's art show reception. She didn't know we were coming, it was a nice surprise. My mom has been a member of the Blandy Sketch Group (not just for sketchers) for several years now and they have an annual show of members works.

Something has happened to Fern. I'm not complaining, I've just noticed. I think maybe her "terrible teens" years are over, or in remission. She's been pleasant, I've been getting hugs, she's not defiant, and she wanted to go to see her grandmother, whereas in the past, no way, "Grandma's weird…do we have to?" And, she wanted to take the BF with us. When we got home she said he had a good time and wanted to go back.

The rest of the weekend was boring, I got 5½ loads of laundry done (the other half load is still in the dryer). I got caught up on some of my shows on the DVR, but now have Amazing Race from last night to watch. I did watch a lot of the Ryder Cup over the weekend, too. Oh, speaking of golf, I bought a new set of woman's irons last weekend and tried them out on Saturday. Not good. I need to break them in before I play with them.

Maybe I'll try to post more often, work is in my busy season so no promises.

Fern and her friend sitting side-by-side iChatting with each other

2010-09-24T22:56:00.001-04:00

Hold on to Your Hats

2010-09-16T09:43:00.004-04:00

I'm posting again.

Somehow, many months ago I got hooked on Gilmore Girls. In the early seasons the shows focused on Lorelai parenting a teenaged daughter. I have a teenaged daughter, I watched, got hooked.

Funny thing happened, Dan got hooked too. It's shown on the ABC Family channel every weekday at 5:00. On the Tuesday after labor day the series rolled around again to the beginning and now it's a thing, we get home from work and watch The Girls, then at 6:00, Friday Night Lights is on the same channel. Go Panthers. Dan will still flip to Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption during the commercials, but he always returns to the Girls. (FNL is a good show to get obsessed about, too.)

I've seen all the GG episodes at least once now, and still enjoy them. Dan asked me how we missed the show when it was first on and I said "Survivor." The Girls were on in the same time slot. I've read different, conflicting things about why they stopped after seven seasons and I may never know the real truth.

Anyway, after I went through the series, either on TV or on DVD, I felt a sense of loss, just as if I had been watching weekly since 2000. Silly me. Now where do I turn? A quick trip to IMDB told me Lauren Graham, the former Lorelai Gilmore, is now starring in Parenthood on NBC and I had just "missed" the premier season. However, thanks to the Internet, I was able to catch up this summer.

Parenthood is a show about a large dysfunctional family, Mom and Dad, with four grown children and their own families. What appealed to me about Parenthood, besides Lauren Graham, is one of the grandchildren, Max, is newly diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and watching a "perfect" TV family deal with the complexities this disorder is of interest. Another thing that is appealing is there are two teenage girls on the show, again, something of interest to me.

As a side note, it was interesting to me to notice how long it took Lauren Graham to morph from Lorelai Gilmore into Sarah Braverman.

Season two of Parenthood premiered Tuesday night at 10:00. I think Dan would like the show too, but he's only seen last season's finale, which didn't introduce the characters well or show why I like it. Dan liked the Gilmore Girls by osmosis so I'll just have to be patient while he warms up to my new obsession just like I warmed up to FNL. But then again, Kyle Chandler isn't difficult to warm up to, at all.

Random Bits of Info

2010-09-15T10:33:00.006-04:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted.

It's my busy season at work, I've got three huge surveys going live in January and I'm trying to make sure that'll happen. I've got oodles of developing to get done and I hope none of my clients throw a wrench into the process.

For Fern's birthday in July we gave her a weekend at the beach for her and two of her friends. This past weekend was it, I took the girls to Ocean City. It was a lesson in patience. It takes about an hour for three teenage girls to wake up in the morning and to cycle through the bathroom for showers after beach time. I tried to give the girls their space at the same time as being the parent on duty. I think everyone had a good time.

I've finished the rush of Girl Scout vests that were dumped on me during the summer. My in-box is empty, but I still have many other projects that require attention. Like the new pair of socks I'm knitting, because I just had to have a new ball of yarn from that shop on the boardwalk.

Long-time readers of this blog may have noticed I haven't posted anything about my Mendoza line in quite a while. That's because I've been over my I-shall-never-be-over-this-weight weight for almost two years. I was successful losing some weight last spring in preparation for our 10-day cruise so I could get into summer clothes. After we got back, I gained it all back and then some. It would have been very easy to just throw up my hands and change my Mendoza line, but I didn't want to, I didn't want to settle for that. I was past the edge where I should buy the next size larger clothes. I didn't want to go up that next size, I didn't want to discard what's in my closed (again) for new, bigger stuff. Dan's been doing Weight Watchers now and has lost some weight. I was watching what I was eating and lost a little, but wasn't really getting significantly nearer my Mendoza line. Now I'm doing WW with Dan and all I can say is "Wow!" First of all, I never realized how much I was eating until I started writing it down and assigning points to it. Secondly, when I started eating within my points range, the weight started to really fall off. The "just one more" mentality does make a difference. I didn't need just one more. It's getting easier to retrain that part of my brain that wants to snack all evening to a) eat a smaller snack serving, 2) eat a healthier snack, and iii) skip the snack altogether. I'm still above my line, but it's within sight, and I'm very excited about that.

I got called a "good mom" by a woman who was about to get her nipples re-pierced.

Kevin Behind the Wheel

2010-09-07T09:59:00.000-04:00

Before and After: Removing a Snow Damaged Shrub

2010-09-01T09:09:00.001-04:00

Back to School Night

2010-09-01T08:25:00.002-04:00

Met all of Fern's teachers, most of them are decent. None will accept late work. She will have three HSAs in the spring and possibly one AP exam in Spanish. Her Spanish class is a combo 4/5AP class. The AP kids will get more work through out the year and will have to take the AP test. If the Spanish 4 kids want, they can take the AP test too. If they pass, they will retroactively get credit for Spanish 5/AP (which is worth more GPA points).

Dan met Kevin's new teacher. He has the same classroom aid as he did last year, which is good. She'll help the new teacher get to know the students and will provide some continuity to the kids.

I know, fun stuff here at Anne's House. Back to school night, oooh, fun. On the other hand, we're heading to the beach for the weekend, regardless of what hurricane Earl does. That, will be fun.

Happy New Year!

2010-08-23T08:23:00.001-04:00

Both kids were up and ready for school today, one with a peanut butter and strawberry sandwich, the other with a bag of last-year's pencils.

I hope they have a good day!

The Anacostia River - guess we got a smidge of rain this morning.

2010-08-12T11:44:00.001-04:00

I took this video with my phone of the Anacostia where it goes under 38th Avenue in Brentwood, MD.

While I was there I saw a large log float downstream with no effort at all. Maybe float isn't the best word, maybe fly would be better.

A Glint in the Sun

2010-08-08T12:22:00.003-04:00

Today I found a dime in the grass just outside the 5 Guys. Before I was even half-way down to pick it up, I remembered something from my childhood.

It was summertime, in the evening, I was about 5 or 6, and we were living in Guyan Estates. The ice cream truck came by in the evenings and when my parents were feeling generous, they would give us 11 cents to buy a treat from the truck, 10 cents plus a penny for something called tax. We would listen for the beacon, the tinny music, announcing its impending arrival.

This particular evening I had my two coins in hand waiting, playing in the mean time. The adults were gathered in the yard too, my parents and the neighbors, chatting. Then I noticed my dime was gone, I'd dropped it in the grass somewhere. I tried to find it but I couldn't, and I had to hurry because the ice cream truck would be there any minute. Any minute. The adults helped me look too to no avail. After what seemed like an hour of panic, the neighbor pulled a dime out of his pocket and gave it to me, for which I was ever so greatful, still after all these years. I was all set again to obtain my long awaited fudgesicle.

The ice cream truck never came that night.

Went North

2010-08-03T10:29:00.005-04:00

I am struggling to get back into the swing of things after being on vacation last week. There is so much to do, laundry, and the yard needs some attention. Dan mowed it on Sunday, but the weeds have really encroached the periphery, some of them are quite tall.

The central reason for vacationing in New England was for Fern to attend and compete in the ISI Worlds championship in Boston (really Marlborough, but whatever). She did quite well: of four individual events she got two firsts (FS4 solo compulsories & artistic), a second (FS4 interp) and a third (freestyle silver). She had at least five and as many as seven in her flights so I was extremely pleased with the results, especially after placing last out of three or four several times at local competitons in the spring.

Fern skated Monday and Tuesday and her team events were on Saturday. I thought the Bowie's production team event went well, but we got third out of four. The team that won had a "Sesame Street" themed show, big family appeal, but the skating was sloppy, in my opinion, and I thought they should have gotten third and Bowie should have gotten second. The second place team, the one I had placed first, skated a very clean, choreographed program, but the music was eerie and was lower on the family appeal scale.

In the interim, we went up to New Hampshire for a few days at the beach and took a five-hour whale-watching trip. The journey out to the Jeffery Ledge, 30 miles off shore, took about an hour and a half. This ledge is a mountain range in the New England Gulf where the fish (plankton, etc.) whales eat are plentiful. (See that wide high place in the map below.) We got to see a pair of humpback whales and a pair of north atlantic right whales. The right whales are very rare, only about 420 in existence. This pair was a mom and her calf. I saw another animal breech the surface and splash down about 500 yards away from the boat but our guide only saw the splash and couldn't tell me what it was. It could have been a minke whale or a white-sided dolphin.

View Larger Map

We had good food, luscious lobstah rolls (lobster salad, like tuna salad, but with huge hunks of lobster meat on a hot dog roll) were prevalent but Kevin stuck to his cheeseburger addiction.

I've posted some pictures from the trip from my phone. I took the "big" camera too, but it'll be a while before I can download them. I got maybe a hundred shots of the whales but I won't know if they are any good until I can see them on a larger screen.

We also fit a couple days in Boston taking in a Ducks tour where Fern got to "drive" down the Charles River, the Blue Man Group, and the Museum of Science where Kevin spent three or four hours watching George Rhoads's Audiokinetic sculpture, Archimedian Excogitation. I watched too. I want one of my own.

I think we tuckered The Boy out

2010-07-29T22:42:00.000-04:00

The tail of a humpback whale

2010-07-29T19:10:00.000-04:00

Vacation Shots from the phone: George Washington Bridge

2010-07-29T10:15:00.000-04:00

Sunset Over Marlboro, MA

2010-07-29T10:12:00.000-04:00

Kevin Engrossed in the Kinetic Sculpture

2010-07-29T10:10:00.000-04:00

Dan's Lobstah Pie

2010-07-29T10:08:00.000-04:00

Sunset at Seaport Beach, NH

2010-07-29T10:07:00.000-04:00

It's Blooming! and other discoveries

2010-07-19T09:44:00.002-04:00

When I got into the office this morning I was delighted to find my oncidium orchid (Sweet Ears 'Pacific Gold') had started to bloom.

Apparently, I have an accent. Saturday, I went to my niece's house warming party. One of her other guests asked me where I was from, that I didn't have the typical 'Maryland' accent and couldn't place what accent I did have. I was kinda flabbergasted. I don't have an accent. Moi?

A couple of trees in our yard sustained damage from the seven feet of snow we got this past winter. I finally called a tree company to take care of the damage. $1475 to remove two trees and trim some branches! Yikes. Seems high to me so I called another company and they'll be out tonight.

I have nineteen Girl Scout vests in queue to be worked on before school starts. I'm ignoring them and have been. I'm out of glue sticks and have been waiting for the stores to start with their back-to-school sales so I can stock up. I use the glue to hold the badges in place while I sew them down. I've also been procrastinating on the badge work because I want to take July off, and because I need to get other projects worked on, like the baby quilt I posted blocks for the other day.

No way I have an accent.

60% of the baby quilt blocks are done!

2010-07-13T22:07:00.000-04:00

Embedded Links

2010-07-12T09:12:00.005-04:00

It's been so long since I posted anything of substance.

I'm not sure the following could be considered "substance" or not, however.

Friday 7/9, Kevin, with his Special Olympics swim team, were honored at the Bowie Baysox game. They got a pre-game introduction, two guys got to throw out the first pitches, and many team members got to run out to the bases with the team. Kevin got to run out to second base. He stood there during the National Anthem, then sauntered back while the rest of the kids ran. That's my boy.

All the fertile office co-worker's wives have given birth and I'm still working on the last baby quilt. I have 10% of the blocks done (of 20) so I have a long way to go.

I'm trying to stay on top of the laundry instead of leaving something in the washer for a couple days or having two or three baskets of things that never got folded while warm and now need to be re-fluffed.

The kids have been back from camp for over a week now and I'm almost done with their laundry. The Boy brought back some clothes with someone else's name written inside. I still need to put them in the post.

I've been listening to BBC/Radio 1 a lot via the Internet and satellite radio in the new car. The Internet plays in real time, but Sirius time-delay's the show by five hours. Kinda messes with the mind a bit.

Wednesday 7/7 was our twentieth anniversary. Dan and I took the day off from work and played golf, then had dinner at Cityzen downtown at the Mandarin Hotel. Yum.

I took a golf lesson Saturday morning from Troy Beck. I'd totally lost the ability to hit fairway woods from the fairway and wasn't getting any real distance from my longer irons. She said I was standing up too soon because I was off balance, and that I was crowding my hands/arms. She had me stand farther back from the ball and gave me drills to practice keeping balanced. By the end of the lesson I was getting 125 yards out of my 7 wood!

It rained 1.38" on Saturday.

Back in June I went to Columbus/OSU for a Perl conference. Perl is a programming language, not a misspelled adornment. I was born and went to college not an hour away from Columbus in Urbana. Some of my college friends were still in the area so I had an opportunity to catch up with some of them. I had lunch with Piper who had lived in the dorm room across the hall from me and is now working in Columbus.

One night I drove out to Urbana and met up with Martha and David at the college. It's really a university now, but I'm having a hard time changing the name in my mind. We walked around campus remarking on all the changes made in the last thirty years and reminiscing about fellow students. My grandmother taught biology and botany there and had her lab/classroom and office in a lovely old building, Barkley-Baily Hall, which since has been turned in to plain classrooms, probably in the English department. The college built a new science/math building in which my grandmother is supposed to have a memorial classroom, but Martha hadn't seen it on a previous visit and I didn't look for it myself. While I was in town, I also drove past my grandparents old house and visited them at the cemetery.

I was supposed to meet up with another friend, but she didn't make it back into town in time. I was bummed. I hadn't seen her in years.

Fern went to ice skating camp for a week and came back pretty jazzed to skate at Worlds in Boston at the end of the month. Now she has a week to cram in all the lessons she can before she competes. Most of her events have seven girls in them. I sure hope she does better than last, I don't want her to be devastated and quit skating. She's so beautiful when she skates and I'm thrilled she has an activity she enjoys. She's been working at the snack bar at the pool and loves having a paycheck. She hates her bank because they are never open when I can get her there to cash the check. Should I let her get an ATM card?

I tried three times to get the new iPhone software to download before it was successful. The download took over 75 minutes each time and process would die with 5 minutes to go. I don't have the new iPhone 4 but I got many of the new features on my 3Gs with this download. Some of the new features are quirky and I'm still trying to figure them out. Oh well. I'd love to be a product test for Apple.

My brother and Roseanne finally opened their yarn shop in Culpeper, VA. I guess I need to visit sometime, huh?

Oh, that's enough rambling for now.

We picked up Kevin at Camp Greentop, Mr. Obama appeared to be in residence next door

2010-07-03T10:40:00.000-04:00

I go away for a week and this is what I come back to.

2010-06-29T08:59:00.000-04:00

See how much it's grown!

2010-06-18T14:59:00.003-04:00

Last week:

This What Happens When

2010-06-17T08:36:00.001-04:00

...the carefully cut pieces for our bee swap quilt block get all jumbled up. Now, to make sense of it and get it put together in time for my bee meeting.

Almost...

2010-06-17T08:35:00.004-04:00

Ta Da!

2010-06-17T08:35:00.003-04:00

This Will Be in the News on Thursday

2010-06-15T09:00:00.003-04:00

The news last week of Abby Sunderland sailing around the world solo reminded me of another sailor who will be in the news this week.

According to his blog, Reid Stow has been sailing around the world solo without stopping, without resupplying for the past three years, and he is scheduled to be sailing home under the Verrazano Bridge Thursday, June 17th having been at sea for 1151 days. I am amazed by this.

Summer Games

2010-06-14T10:30:00.002-04:00

The Special Olympic summer games were held at Towson University again this year over the weekend. Kevin and I headed out of town Friday afternoon. I went the "wrong" way going up I-97 instead of my usual way of the BW Parkway. Turns out, it was the better route and traffic was horrible the other way.

PG County athletes waiting to enter the arena for the parade of athletes into the opening ceremonies. Too bad we couldn't hear what they said when they announced us. Since I was a chaperone, I walked in the the teams. Cameras and lights everywhere.

Kevin is a couple rows in front of me. PG county had about 100 folks in the contingent of athletes, coaches and chaperones.

The calm before the storm.

Kevin in lane 5 for the 25 yard freestyle race.

We had tickets for an all-ages They Might Be Giants concert (packed with tots!) Saturday afternoon and made it down there after Kevin's 4x25 relay race. The team ended up getting DQ'd because one swimmer left early but two swimmers got staged out of order and he was confused. This is the audience area of the Ramshead Live in Baltimore during the show with the confetti machine blowing full blast. The kids loved it.

Last year Kevin didn't have any races Saturday afternoon so Dan met us at the zoo. The problem was, Kevin didn't want to go back to the Olympic village afterward, he wanted to stay with Daddy. We ended up sleeping in Bowie, then driving up early for his races on Sunday. This year I managed some heavy bribing and he went back to Towson without a lot of protest and with a burger from Five Guys in his belly.

Kevin in the staging chairs for his last race, the 241st race of the weekend.

Kevin with his bronze medal for that race.

Kevin with all his medals.

On Flying Things

2010-06-11T09:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday started with a bird flying into our house.

We keep the garage doors open in the mornings so we can hear Kevin's bus come. So the bird had easy entry. Thinking about it though, it's kind of surprising no bird has ever flown in before now.

Dan had the bird cornered in the kitchen near the door, but couldn't get it unlocked and open before it flew into the living room. It tried to fly out the window, which was closed. I got the front door open then used a broom to guide it out.

Last night I found a unexplainable dark purple stain on the sofa. Hmmm. Related? I don't want to think about it.

Quilting Pattern

2010-06-09T09:22:00.006-04:00

Do you know this person?

I created it from this site.

Squealing with Joy

2010-06-08T10:22:00.002-04:00

What you are looking at is a brand new bloom spike on my Oncidium orchid. It wasn't there last Friday. I'm so excited. Orchids are easy to grow, but finicky at the same time. They need the right light and water to be happy. I guess this one is happy.

So for the next several weeks I'll be on 'orchid watch' waiting for this baby to bloom. Of course I'll post pictures.

Random Stuff

2010-06-03T12:46:00.002-04:00

Today is the graduation of the Bowie HS class of 2010. Nothing too alarming about that, except if Kevin weren't the Kevin we know and love, I'd be the mom of a diploma-carrying high school graduate right about now. As it is, he has four more years of school to the end of an attendance certificate, and hopefully enough acquired job skills to be employable.

The high school is closed today because the faculty and staff will be attending the graduation. I took the morning off to hang with Kevin and took the opportunity to get some errands done before I went to work.

I spent the morning at the Social Security office to get Kevin a replacement social security card. They were calling person 'A7' when I got there and my ticket was for A20. I thought it might take two hours but the pace picked up the last 30 minutes and got out in 1.25 hours. I had planned to stop by the MVA for a state ID for Kevin and to drop off the tags from the Corolla but ran out of time.

We donated the corolla to Melwood. It's our third vehicle to them. They provide job training and opportunities for people with disabilities. And, they are a local organization helping local people. And, we may need their services one day. Like, sending money to UVA to help a child get admitted. Guess we can stop that now since her grades are nowhere near good enough for UVA.

Melwood contracts with an auction company to pick up donated cars and sell them on their behalf. The corolla was picked up yesterday. On the way home from work yesterday, I remembered I'd left the garage opener and a visor sleeve of CDs in the car. Sheesh.

I called the company that handles the cars and told them my problem. The lady told me the holding lot closed at 4:30 and wouldn't open until 9:00 today. Anyway, turns out the lot is near work and I was able to pick up the CD sleeve this morning, and yesterday the tow driver saw the garage opener before leaving our house and left it in our front door.

Here's the 1999 corolla sitting at the auction lot with 168,100 miles, good bye!

Please Pass the Tomatoes

2010-06-01T12:18:00.004-04:00

Success!

A couple of years ago I bought a cheese making kit to make fresh mozzarella and made several successful batches, even posting pictures here. Then, they changed the temperature of pasteurization. As it turns out, the difference of five or six degrees in that process is the difference between good cheese and a big vat of mess.

I was recently tipped of by a Facebook friend, the milk sold at My Organic Market (MOM) is pasteurized at the lowest possible temperature. We have a new MOM in town so I ventured in there for the first time on Sunday to try their milk. I got a gallon of whole homogenized milk for my test. (You can buy un-homogenized milk, too.)

I gasped at the price of a gallon of organic milk, almost $2 more than grocery store milk per jug. Even though the milk is more expensive, it made more cheese. My directions say one gallon of milk yields ¾ lb of cheese and I found that to be true when commercial milk worked. My Sunday batch with the organic milk yielded almost a 1 ¼ lbs! I guess organic cows have richer milk?

The cheese itself turned out good, but maybe a little stiff, almost 'squeaky.' I don't think I need as much rennet as I used. I'll have to try another batch soon. Anyone have any tomatoes in their gardens yet?

Pizza Bread - step 1

2010-05-21T16:13:00.000-04:00

It's snack time here at Anne's house and we're making "pizza bread."

Preheat your oven to 425°
Unroll a tube of Pillsbury Pizza crust onto a baking sheet. Fix any tears in the dough where it tore open when you tapped the can on the edge of the counter and the dough exploded through 2 layers. I hate it when that happens.
Let the dough sit while the oven warms up.

Pizza bread - step 2

2010-05-21T16:04:00.002-04:00

Step two:

Spread crushed garlic, snipped rosemary leaves, olive oil, and course salt over the dough.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Pizza Bread - step 3

2010-05-21T15:58:00.000-04:00

Ta Da!

Empty

2010-05-21T08:34:00.002-04:00

Before I could even get the camera up there, the babies have flown the coop, the nest is empty.

Oh well.

In other news, Fern landed, for the first time, two axels at her ice skating lesson on Wednesday.

Cardinal Family Update

2010-05-17T15:25:00.003-04:00

All three babies have hatched. They sit there with their mouths wide open waiting for food when their mum has flown off. I really need to get a picture of these chill'n to share, but the nest is hidden behind a lot of branches and leaves and I need a longer lens.

At Least One

2010-05-13T08:47:00.001-04:00

I can see at least one hatchling in the cardinal's nest!

Soon to be a Mama

2010-05-11T12:57:00.002-04:00

This mama cardinal and her mate will soon be the proud parents of triplets. I know this because her nest is right below my bedroom window and I saw three speckled eggs in there.

There are too many leaves in the way to get a picture of her sitting on her broodlets and she yells at me too much when I try to move the branches out of the way for a better shot. My iPhone needs a longer lens.

Picture of the Day

2010-05-10T15:53:00.002-04:00

Curaçao

The Weekend and More

2010-05-05T10:29:00.008-04:00

Wow, it's Wednesday already and I haven't posted anything of substance in a while.

Hold that thought, the fire alarm is going off, need to evacuate the building.

That was fun.

Anyway, we have a new vehicle, a silver Kia Sorento. Bought it last Thursday, got it home, and not thirty minutes later Dan was on the way to Chicago for the weekend for his mother's interment. He got home at 03:00 on Sunday morning with 1500 miles on it. I guess I need to post a picture of it, huh?

Friday, Kevin went to swim team practice and I headed off to Costco with a pocket full of camera memory cards. It only took an hour to load 1900 pictures into their system and pick almost 300 to have printed on real photo paper. And then it only took an hour to actually have them printed. I was impressed with that part. I also had a DVD made of all the pictures so now I have digital copies available at work since my work computer won't read the memory cards. When was the last time you had real photo-paper prints made? Been a while, huh?

Saturday was pretty much a blur, I cleaned the kitchen and baked a rhubarb pie, but that's all I remember I got done. I hadn't baked a pie in a long time and forgot to set the timer to remind me to turn down the oven after 10 minutes. Yup, the crust was a little dark, but not too bad. Oh well.

Blogging friend Lorraine is in town this week for a conference and had time in her schedule to hang out with me on Sunday. She got to experience the new vehicle. I gave her nearly burnt pie, took her to church, then took her to Baltimore's Fell's Point. We had tapas for lunch and swapped stories of our teenage daughters who don't turn in homework. I got her back to her hotel in time for her event. Our time was much too short.

I had Kevin and Fern and her boyfriend with me to Baltimore so after we dropped Lorraine off, I took the kids to the Mall. There were lots of events going on so parking was at a premium. I found a place a couple blocks away from the National Gallery of Art, so that's were we went. Kevin had been there before and made a bee-line for the basement. We spent most of our time riding the moving walkway connecting the East Wing with the West. The other two kids were on their own to explore for a while.

I haven't been quilting in a while, and I've missed it. After I got my quilt done for the show, I've focused on getting my badge sewing done. I've had several vests to work on since before spring break and now am almost finished with my backlog. When this last vest is done, I get to go back to quilting. I still have three baby quilts to finish for the aforementioned fertile office mates.

And now, here's a picture from our spring break cruise. Now that I've got these on DVD I can post more pictures.

Lorraine and Mom meet

2010-05-02T10:46:00.002-04:00

I was there to witness the meeting of two blogging friends, Mom and Lorraine.

The Rest of the Story

2010-04-27T09:41:00.003-04:00

Now that it's been a couple days since our amazing dinner, I'm ready to tell you more about it. Overall, it was a wonderful meal. It lived up to the five-plus months of anticipation since I had made the reservation.

Dan, Ann, Mark and I went to Volt, Bryan Voltaggio's (made famous by the reality show Top Chef and recent James Beard Award nominee) restaurant in Frederick, Maryland on Friday and at ate at 'Table 21,' where you are served a chef-selected 21-course dinner.

Table 21 is not a table but really a counter with seating for eight around the edge of the kitchen. Our view for the three hours we were there was of the prep area for our dishes as well as dishes for other diners. We got to observe Chef Bryan and his staff create some of the best looking food I'd ever seen. The kitchen was quiet, not like any yelling matches you might see in the movies or on Hell's Kitchen.

The cuisine was new and high-tech, not the family staples your grandmother made. Each of the dishes were planned and executed with great care, even the garnishes, from fresh local products. At one point I stole and ate a leaf from Dan's plate. Chef Bryan caught me. We were then treated to a lesson about how he chooses the garnishes, they are meant to be eaten, enhance the dish visually and provide an element to the flavor profile of the dish. The sorrel leaf I nicked had been soaked in red liquid (I forget what kind, beet juice maybe) so the veins turned red, very pretty, very tasty.

Chef Bryan used a lot of things that were unexpected, such as macaroons made from vegetables and 'dippin' dots' made from tomato sauce. When they melted on the hot chicken and noodles, it blended into his wonderful take on Chicken Parmesan.

One of my favorite dishes was the goat cheese ravioli with the 'soy air,' foam made from soy sauce. The first fish dish was also up there on the favorite list, the hiramasa. It was delicate and moist. Then favorite list gets cloudy, I cannot rank anything after that. Except for the sweetbreads (at the bottom) and the seared lamb, which I didn't even try. I've got major texture issues, and it was very raw.

Save room for dessert. There were five dessert courses, the cheese cake was probably the best and the strawberry noodles were probably the most unusual.

We were offered coffee and tea with our desserts. I chose tea. This is the part of the whole affair I was disappointed with. I asked for Earl Gray and received a tea that was so strong I couldn't drink it, and it wasn't even Earl, it was Lapsang-Souchong. I really dislike people who presume they know how I like my tea better than I do. Please, let me brew it myself. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, literally. The waiter brought me another pot of tea, but it wasn't any better. There were enough tea leaves in the basket to brew about 8 cups of tea.

Dinner at Table 21 is $121 per person plus drinks, tax, and tip. Yes, I would eat there again, I'd love to try other dishes as the seasons change, but I wouldn't drink the tea.

Dinner at Volt - Table 21

2010-04-23T21:49:00.003-04:00

What follows are pictures from our twenty-one course dinner. I only forgot to photograph #11, the veal sweetbreads. (yuck)

#1 Ginger Ale

2010-04-23T21:47:00.001-04:00

#2 Prosciutto Chips & Potato Dip

2010-04-23T21:46:00.001-04:00

#3 Celeriac Macaroon

2010-04-23T21:45:00.001-04:00

#4 Tuna

2010-04-23T21:43:00.001-04:00

#5 Lobster

2010-04-23T21:42:00.001-04:00