Giveaway

BTDT. It was fun, but once was enough. And now someone else can have the chart. Just comment here, on this post, and I'll draw a winning name at 8AM (ET), on Sunday March 1.

Please enter....I want to buy something new and I'll feel better if I've given something old away!

Finished! And a goofy game

Hi gang! What a great weekend! Dave and I were able to get tickets to Saturday's Pitt basketball game. Fun? Oh yeah. Then we went to Primanti Brothers for a late dinner of Primanti's sandwiches.

What? You haven't heard of the Primanti's sandwich? I'm sad to say that no photo can capture its deliciousness, but here's one I found via Google Images.My favorite is a Cap and Egg without cheese. (capicola, for those of you non-Pittsburghers) Perfect. A Primanti sandwich is a generous helping of meat(s), cheese, tangy coleslaw, tomatoes, and fries all stuffed between two fat pieces of Italian bread. I know it sounds crazy, and it's ridiculously messy. And when you take that first bite, your mouth sings.

Of course, Dave and I have old-timers bragging rights, because when we were in college, we went to the original Primanti's, in the Strip District of Pittsburgh. Back then, there was only one restaurant - a little counter service place that was kind of a dive. No. Not kind of. It was a dive. And it didn't open until midnight, because it served truck drivers who were delivering to the Strip in the middle of the night. And they served college students who had stayed out at bars and parties for way too long. Well, I wouldn't say that we were ever "served". We'd order food, but then we'd all be served whatever came off the grill (usually cheeseburgers), and if you complained, they would say take it or leave it. We would take it. It was delicious anyway, So we were tolerated, at best. We were probably obnoxious.

Oh, I could tell you stories....

But let's move on.

I finally finished this exchange block! The theme was "Red", and this design is from LHN, but I adapted it to fit the block size.

And I saw a blogger playing one of these funny Google games, and there's nothing more fun than seeing your own name in silly situations. So here's the game. Go to Google, and search for "Unfortunately, (your name here). Then I picked my favorites. And they are:

Unfortunately, Lee did not sing on this album.
Unfortunately, Lee required a few stitches from employees.
Unfortunately, Lee has me beat by A LOT in two departments... talent and age.
Unfortunately, Lee’s talents don’t extend to the jumble of cloying Asian-fusion desserts.
Unfortunately Lee's hopes for a top-five finish were dashed.
Unfortunately, Lee forgot to do one teeny, tiny thing that could have helped.

Red stitching

I keep writing about it, although I'm still not finished! But I thought it was time for a photo. Sorry - my photo is too dark. The fabric is lambswool and the color is a variegated DMC (115: Red to Burgundy)

This is a block for a Yahoo group exchange, and that's why it's stitched on aida cloth.

I'll tell you what...these LHN designs look so easy, but in reality they are pretty dense with stitches and can take longer to finish than I would have thought.

Also, to go back a post or two, thanks to some good advice from some very sensible blogging friends, I feel like we have a better understanding of Colleen's college choices.

I was fussing over this stuff so much - - I know I was driving her crazy. I just have to trust that Colleen is a very bright and self-assured young woman, and she'll make her own best choice. I know she'll ask me what I think, and I know she'll listen carefully, and that makes me feel good, but I must let her decide.

Which is very difficult for an oldest-child-control-freak like me, who must always know everything and must always be the decider and if not the decider, at least the fixer.

Oops. I may have said too much.

This wind!

I wish you all could come and sit in my living room, just so you could hear the wind howl. In the summertime, there's always a refreshing breeze. I love my wind chimes and I love to sit outside and feel the breeze on my face. But it's positively insane once winter rolls around. It's hard to describe and I don't think most people would believe me anyway, unless they've sat in any of my front rooms and listened to it.

So please come over. I'll make some tea and coffee and we'll have something yummy to eat. Besides, people generate body heat and it will help take the chill off of these rooms!

Hurry up Spring!

6 Things

Our trip to Erie was a good one. It's helped Colleen narrow down her school choices a little more. I'll tell you that both colleges were very good to us. The students were very nice, and the staff members at both colleges took a very keen intereste in Colleen and were very informative. She's come away thinking that Mercyhurst had a better program for English majors, though.

This is new territory for us. We're heavier in science backgrounds and John went to school intending to be a biology major, so we were comfortable with that. An English major, though? We're a little lost. If any of you have any advice, I'd love to hear it.

I've been working on a "red" project - a little exchange block for my Yahoo group. Nothing to show right now, though.

Meanwhile, I saw this on one the book blogs that I read, and it looked like fun. So here are six things that make me happy!

My family!

Music

Good coffee!

Good Books!

Daffodils!

And of course...My stitching!


Now maybe six of you would like to play, too? (You don't have to add pictures if it's too much work. How's about:
Dianne
Dani
"C"
Staci
Valie
Von

But seriously, since I pilfered this from someone else's blog and started to play on my own, you should absolutely do the same thing if this looks like fun for you!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my bloggy friends!

I hope you are having a special day!

After much ripping - again - I finished Spot of Coffee. Things were going along wonderfully last night, and I was almost finished, and then I noticed that I had white floss on my floss ring. Hmmmm. I hadn't used any white floss. Yet there it was...on my floss ring and with a symbol on the chart.

Well. Duh. I had misread the symbols around the windows, and had stitched the window trim in brown and it should have been white. I debated leaving the windows alone, but I have to say that the whole time I was stitching the house, I was thinking that its colors were kind of yucky. So I ripped it all out last night, and finished it this morning. Check out the difference after I stitched the trim in white. Correctly. I liked stitching this, even if it did make me feel dumb as a post.

I might finish this tonight!

Dave's working, and I have Sense and Sensibility waiting in the DVD player...



I'll be away with Colleen again this weekend, as she visits Gannon and Mercyhurst in Erie. I'll be staying at the Erie Clarion. Erie in February? I'd better unpack my swimsuit. And pack extra stitching.

Three musical shows!

I don't have too much to say about stitching today, but I've been to three - yes, three! - musical events in the past week.

I'll start with the great stuff. Tuesday night we went to WVU to see Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt. It was just them and their guitars, but they talked and told stories and interacted with the crowd. Sometimes they sang alone, and sometimes they sang together and it was a great evening. John Hiatt has a voice as big as the mountains, and Lyle Lovett's voice is more delicate. But many of Lyle Lovett's songs need a big sound behind it, and Hiatt's accompaniment was perfect. You could tell that they had given a lot of thought to meshing their talents, and it was a fabulous show. And to think that we almost didn't go after our experience of Friday night's show...but you'll read more about that later.

Wednesday night Colleen, The Boyfriend and I went to see a production of Sweeney Todd, also at WVU. It was wonderful. The kids had seen the movie but I hadn't, and I think that because of that I enjoyed it even more because the ending surprised me.

So this week we saw some great things. But last week? Stop here if you don't want to read my complaints.

Last Friday was our trip to Philly to see the Three Girls and their Buddy show...except that Buddy Miller wasn't there. He had left the Philly show because he was in L.A. for the Grammy Awards (he played with Alison Krause and Robert Plant). Let me tell you...he was very, very missed. I like all three of the women (Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, and Emmylou Harris), but without accompaniment by Buddy Miller, the music was blah. Much like the Lovett/Hiatt show, they simply came out on stage, sat in a row, and took turns singing songs. Sometimes this works, but Friday night it was....yawn... Boring. In other shows, Miller took his turn as well, but he also accompanied every song that each woman sang. I mean, I'm no music expert, but even I could tell that part of the music was missing. Sometimes one of the artists would try to accompany the other, but it fell flat. It was weak.

If I had known ahead of time that Buddy wasn't going to be there, I absolutely would have sold my tickets. Honestly, I felt ripped off.

Well, I guess if I'm in for a penny, I'm in for a pound, so now I'll bitch a little about the Keswick Theater. Parking? Almost none. Handicap parking? One space. Seriously. And the concert-goers were inconsiderate at best. Folks - when a show starts at 7:30, that doesn't mean that you get to the theater at 7:45, then have your cocktails in the lobby, thereby making you even more late, then you and 25 of your closest friends waltz in whenever the hell you feel like it and walk up and down the aisles trying to find your seats then disturb everyone else as you climb over them to get into your seats. It was aggravating and rude.

Well gang, I'm still working on Spot of Coffee, but it seems that every time I stitch on it, I end up ripping half of my stitching out. This nicer weather seems to have addled my brain...But I've stitched a little this afternoon (yes, and ripped a little, too), and I'm looking forward to some Happy Chair Time tonight. That's Coni's little gem of a saying, not mine! And I love it.

Misery loves company

Thank you all for commiserating with me over last night's snow shoveling wingding. Well, some of you were commiserating from warm parts of the earth, but just knowing that you felt my pain made it much easier to bear.

I wrote that post while I was having a pity party for myself, because I was home alone and I had no one to send outside to do it for me. (I ask you, what good are teenagers if they aren't home to shovel snow or cut grass when you need them?) All in all, it wasn't so awful. It was bitterly cold, but the snow was light and fluffy. I suppose I'd rather move fluffy snow in zero-degree weather than move heavy wet snow in temps that make you sweat while you work.

Here's a little more progress on Spot of Coffee. I had actually stitched a border under the verse, but one little mistake and I took the whole thing out. Still, it's going quickly, and I like it. I think it'll be time to go back to my DT sampler after this and finally finish it!

Our Philly trip seems to be turning into a drama. My family can be so weird. Dave and I are only in town for one night, and we had an extra concert ticket so we invited my mother to come to dinner and the show with us. And since the trip was short, I had told my sister that I'd meet her for breakfast Saturday morning, before we left to drive home again. Well, the Saturday morning thing has turned into some people feeling UN-invited, and they don't want to "intrude" and yada-yada -yada. Sheesh. If you want to come to the diner, then come to the diner for heaven's sake.

Do they think that I'll see them and give them the hairy eyeball and tell them to sit somewhere else? Do they think that Janet and I are telling deep, dark secrets at the Red Lion Diner? Breakfast is just breakfast.

Drama. Grrr.

Guess what I'm doing tonight.

Except that it's dark. And the wind is blowing. And it's still snowing.

Winter sucks.

One foot in front of the other

That's the way I felt walking through Pechin's Grocery Store today. Pechins is one of those off price places. They have things that are kind of unusual and typically right at the end of their shelf life. But for us, especially in the summer with College Boy around, we go through food really fast, so there are bargains to be had! Now that it's just the three of us, I only go about once a month, if that. But I'm going way off track here.

So - Pechins is still trying to get rid of its Christmas candy, and Oh-Lord-Help-Me they still had their Christmas Mint M&M's and they were practically giving them away. Now, I'm going to guess that M&M's and Christmas Mint M&M's in particular were responsible for several of the pounds I've put on since November. Well, they didn't exactly jump into my mouth. I sort of put them there. But I couldn't stop.

And today I knew that I had to just keep walking. Goodbye, my little loves.

Good news, though! I went for brisk walks on Sunday AND Monday, and even threw in a little running Monday. February always fills me with hope...And give us fabulous sunsets. This was just outside my front door yesterday.
And then not more than ten minutes later!

I watched some of an HBO series last night, Generation Kill, about Marines in Iraq. I think it's disturbing, but I can't seem to stop watching. And I stitched a bit on Spot of Coffee, amid all of the F-bombs and other colorful Marine language.


We're headed to Philly Friday to see Three Girls and Their Buddy at the Keswick. It'll be a very short stay though, because Dave couldn't get the whole weekend off. I wish we could stay more than one night, but I'm glad we're getting to go at all.

Oh! And I've just read that Gaelic Storm will be at the Palace Theatre in Greensburg PA on March 31. I remember that some of you liked them, too!

(No WW progress to report. I missed last week because I was on a college visit with Colleen. And this week? Well, my meetings are on Monday mornings. And the Steelers won the Super Bowl Sunday night. Enough said?)

The Rock is ready

Yes, The Rock is ready for the Super Bowl. And did you know that he's a Steeler fan?

Seriously. He is. Just look into his eyes.

Genius Time!**

I took the advice of my very very ingenious friends here (Valerie and AnnaVS), and turned the plaid fabric at an angle, instead of trying to square everything up. I decided to forgo the twisted cording, too. It was too much to look at. And as I was working and cutting and gluing, I realized that the entire thing was pretty darn close to 8X10, so I decided to put it in a simple wood frame, rather than create an easel. And I'm super happy with the results!


Such a week! Horrible weather. Or as Dave would say: "A cocktail of winter misery". A court hearing yesterday for a complaint that I filed against a customer for giving us a bad check. Wow, now that's fun. And today the sun is out, but if you step out my front door, the wind will blow the hair off your head.

Ah, but here's a bright spot! This came from Barb, who has a new-ish blog called Stitching Again.

I am to list 5 of my addictions and then pass this award on to 5 other bloggers.

My addictions, in no particular order:
1. Good coffee. I'm a disaster if I don't have my two cups a day.
2. Wine, but in a good way! I wouldn't die without it, but I do love a glass of wine several times a week.
3. Hello? Stitching.
4. The Internet. Mostly blog reading, but I goof around a lot more than I should when I need to be doing something else.
5. Running. Even if I'm not doing it, I'm thinking about it.

Now, all of you have blogs that I think are just fabulous, so please play along if you'd like.

***Back in the early 90's, this house was Thomas the Tank Engine Fan Central. Does anyone remember the older show with Ringo Starr as Mr. Conductor? And there was a character called Schemer, who always said,"Genius Time!" whenever he had a hairbrained idea. (I loved Schemer...)

Done but not finished

I think only another stitcher would understand that title!

I've finished the stitching on the Irish House Blessing, and I'm showing it to you now when it's almost completely finished. In other words, I have most of the materials to finish-finish it, but not quite. So here is a "not quite finished" photo.I did decide to add something under "the fire". The original chart had that area blank, but my eye kept wandering there and feeling like it was missing something. So I did a little bargello stitching. You can't see it in the photo, but the uppermost row is white.

I'm thinking I'll finish it as an easel, and I love that plaid fabric, but I also know that it won't be very easy to work with. The design is kind of primitive, which gives me a little forgiveness if everything isn't completely straight, but the plaid may make it scream CROOKED!

It was a busy weekend. Saturday Dave got it into his head to rearrange the bedroom, and it turned into a big project. On Sunday Colleen and I left for one of her overnight college visits. It was an overnight that lasted till Monday, and we arrived home again Monday evening. She stayed in the dorms, and I stayed at a local B&B. Those visits are fun, but exhausting, too.

Yikes - another week of terrible weather. C'mon Springtime!

Now that I've turned 50, I'm being a good patient

Suddenly I'm faced with all of these "recommended" medical exams. This week I've been to the dermatologist for my yearly once-over, and he found an unusual spot on my back. So he took a sample and told me to keep it clean and use an antibiotic ointment and bandage. Except it's in the dead center of my back, so unless there's someone home when I come out of the shower, I'm S.O.L.

And because I was such a conscientious patient, I thought I should buy myself a scroll frame and since JoAnn's was just down the road, I stopped in and bought a very inexpensive frame to try out.**

Two days later I visited my gynecologist, who I absolutely adore. I wish my family doctor was half as wonderful. So I had that yearly exam, got my prescriptions renewed, and zipped down the road for my mammogram. And since I was behaving like such an adult, I rewarded myself with a little side trip to a new-to-me shop, called Needle Point Breeze. It's a small needlepoint store in a part of Pittsburgh called Point Breeze, and I only just found it while I was fooling around online. I could not believe how close it was to my doctor's office. They had a really nice selection of threads, and a big basket of discontinued and therefore discounted Needle Necessities threads, so I treated myself to a few threads that were yelling "Buy me. You know you want me. You know you'll use me. Just buy me!"
I wish I had had a specific project in mind, because I could have bought much, much more. But my mind went totally blank as I went from rack to rack. Next time I'll be more focused. Right. Also right handy there is a pharmacy called Schillers Cosmetique and Pharmacy and they have the greatest selection of soaps and creams and other wonderful things. Including this most fabulous hand cream.

So anyway, I think I rewarded myself nicely. And just wait till you see what I buy myself after my recommended colonoscopy...

I'm almost finished with the Sampler Girl freebie. There's just the simple border to stitch, but I'm thinking that I need something in the space under "the fire". Hm. This needs more thought.

**Thanks to everyone who has advised me and written about their scroll frame preferences. I'm leaning towards a lap frame holder with a universal type clamp, but I want to give this cheapy frame a try first. There are some real beauties out there!

2.4

That was my weight loss for my first week back to Weight Watchers. I'm cautiously happy...I know from past experiences that the first week back always shows a bigger loss than subsequent weeks. But it's a loss and I'll take it! I feel very lucky, what with having Meat Week suddenly thrown in there, and after our party Sunday night with lots of goodies and Sangria. We had 16 for dinner, and I still have pork leftover!

How about those Steelers?! So now we're all looking forward to the Super Bowl and more parties and carrying on. Even if you're not a football fan, you have to love the parties!

Friends, I've been a total slug and have hardly stitched anything for the past 5 days. Will I ever finish anything? Somebody kick me.

But before I end this lame-o post, could any of you give me advice about buying scroll rods? I've come into a little extra money (sold some antique candy molds on ebay), and I'm thinking about scroll rods for my larger samplers. It's so difficult to decide without having the actual product in front of me to try it and see if it's comfortable. And advice will be appreciated. And read again - and again - and again, as I try to make up my mind.

Seriously - this money is burning a hole in my pocket. So help a girl out?

I love this little design

As you can see, I've recharged the batteries. Now I'm going to find an impenetrable hiding place for my camera...


I've had fun with this round of Interview Me, courtesy of Anna. She's asked some good questions, don't you think? So I've answered, and if you want to play, leave a comment and your email address and I'll send you my five questions. Other rules are listed below. And now I must go think of 5 questions...

1. The local news media shows up on your doorstep. It turns out your neighbor is a serial killer. You cannot say, "He was so quiet. This is such a shock. This kind of thing doesn't happen here." What do you say? (You can choose the neighbor.) That's an interesting question, considering that we've just finished watching Season 1 and 2 of "Dexter", who struggles mightily to appear normal. Honestly, I've always believed that you can never exactly know what goes on behind closed doors...but if it's the neighbor to my right, well, I guess I'd say I was not surprised. They are very reclusive. They have "improved" their home with 100% scavenged and stolen materials. He doesn't work and she doesn't drive. When I say hello to them on the road, they almost jump out of their skins. Most of the time, we find them vaguely amusing, but really - they are very odd.

2. What's the greatest invention created in your lifetime? Without a doubt, I think it's the small, affordable home computer. It totally changed my life, and the Internet was just an added bonus.

3. What was your best job? My best job was being a stay-at-home mom after Colleen was born. Nobody paid me, but the rewards were priceless. It was a great gig for 14 years, and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

4. Over the next 18 months, we're all likely going to have to cut back. Where will you make these cuts? What luxury will fight to save? Will you actually come to blows? (That last one is a joke.) This is particularly painful for me, because not only are my IRA savings disappearing, but I'll be getting two college tuition bills this fall. I've faithfully saved for college over the years, but let's face it...unless you're pretty darn wealthy, there's always a shortfall. Back when gas was crazy expensive, I was driving much less and I'm still thinking hard about my car trips. I've been working at keeping a frugal kitchen, so I've been using up leftovers like nobodies business. Eating out less. And we've cancelled one vacation. I'd fight to keep my stitching and sewing shopping, but I know it wouldn't come to that. I'm not insane when it comes to buying stash, and I work hard and contribute all of my money towards our savings (college and retirement), so if I budget $25 or $30 a month towards fabric, floss, and designs, it's no big deal to any of us.

5. Are you a good speller? I'm the most dangerous kind of speller - The type who thinks she's a good speller, but really isn't that great, so I convince other people that I'm right, thereby spreading my bad spelling throughout the land.

The Rules:
1. If you want to participate, leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” (And your e-mail address if I don't already have it, please.)
2. I will respond by e-mailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Wish I had more

Well, I had hoped to have more progress pictures to show you, except that a certain husband, (you know, the stereo equipment fellow), used my camera to take and upload pictures of - guess what - his stereo equipment, and as usual when he had finished uploading the pictures he left the camera plugged into the computer and turned on, so my batteries are dead.

I forgot to mention that the audio-mania involved selling as well as buying stuff. So we must take pictures at all times.

Sigh. Why can't he be perfect, like me?

It's a good thing that he took me to a marvelous concert last night, so I was still in a pretty good mood and able to forgive him. We saw Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs in concert at WVU and they were fantastic. Serious musical genius. Bruce Hornsby revisited several of his older songs, but completely reworked them as bluegrass and it was magical. Ricky Skaggs revisited some of his music as jazz. There was a surprise around every corner, and it made for a great evening of music. If you're a fan of either or both musicians and they are performing near you, GO!

And now I have to go. I'm getting ready for the Meat Bonanza AFC Championship party, and I'm making penalty flags and challenge flags. Nobody cares if I clean the bathroom, but we can't be without our props. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

Near Catastrophe

For the past few years, Dave has renewed his interest in anything audio. He's been fooling around with old and used speakers, receivers, amplifiers, and he's accumulated quite a collection. So just before Christmas, he decided that our partially finished basement was going to become his audio room, and last weekend he finally had some time off, so he hauled all of that stuff down there.

He had a fun weekend testing things and some pretty crazy sounds were coming out of that basement, but what the heck, it's all in good fun, right?

Except that my house is old, and like most houses in this neighborhood, it was built as a summer home, so there are many things that it's short on. Insulation is one thing, and the other? Electrical outlets.

So, in order to make his stuff work, Dave had to unplug a few things.

One of them was my upright freezer.

Last night he went down to the freezer to get a loaf of bread, and discovered that he had never plugged it back in. We threw away a lot of non-rescue-able things, but most of the meats were only partially defrosted. Two turkeys. A gigantic pork loin, loads of chops, some steaks, and about a half dozen whole chicken breasts.

Can you guess what I'll be doing all day?

I'll be cooking like a mad woman, and I should be able to save lots of it for our football party this Sunday. But would anyone like to come to dinner tonight? We'll be having meat. Not much else. Just meat.

Irish house blessing

Here's my progress from the weekend:

I had a completely unremarkable Friday and Saturday. I cooked John's favorite meal on Saturday night. Well, one of his favorites, anyway - - - Swedish meatballs over rice. Now that he's in his second year of college, he seems to love everything that I cook. And that puzzles me a little, because with the amount that I pay for housing and meals, the food at college should be fabulous.

I took him back to school on Sunday, and Meadville had SO much more snow than we did. But the roads were clear and travel was easy.

Then I hurried back home to our friends' house to watch the Steelers crush the Chargers. And now we're excited for Sunday's AFC Championship game! We'll have a bunch of our friends here for dinner and the game and win or lose, I know we'll have a good time.


I usually don't write about this kind of thing, but Dani has inspired me, so here goes! About 3 years ago, I joined Weight Watchers, and in about a year and some months I lost over 40 pounds. I felt fantastic, I started running, I was practicing and loving yoga, and I was looking forward to my 50th birthday.

Well, I don't know why, but by this past summer, I started to lose my focus. Running became a chore, and I kept hurting my feet. I had been going to yoga sporadically, and then dropped it all together. I started to lose control of my eating, and returned to making really bad food choices. I've gained 18 pounds since this time last year, and although I beat myself up for it all through December, I continued to eat and eat and eat, even though I could see where it was taking me.

OK...Yesterday I went back to my first WW meeting in two years. I'm desperately trying to take these initial weeks one day at a time. I remember that after a while, the decisions became easier and the eating worries diminished as the good habits replaced my bad habits. So Come On Easier Days!