Good Fortune

Lunch with my friend Patricia at Asian Wok - with a pretty little cake and a fortune cookie included. And the cookie had a real fortune - I hate it when there is just a comment instead of a fortune. It said, "Your talents will be recognized and suitably rewarded." A little piece of paper I'll hold on to.

And dinner with my best girl at Chick Fill-A. We were on the way to La Rosa's, her choice, when she spotted Chick Fill-A. She said, "Please, can't we go there instead? Please?"

And how could I not say, "ok." I'm sure it was the play area that won her over, and she played and played.


I went to the counter to get her an ice cream cone afterwards and the counter woman said that cones are free for kids. Nice.

New Camera - Again

I got a new camera on Thursday morning, and after a few pictures it didn't work any more by Thursday afternoon. The store exchanged it today, for which I'm grateful. I'm also grateful that it continued to act up in the camera store.

And so, some pictures - A very sleepy Nora and a very sleepy and a little under-the-weather Aaron, loving it up with Aunt Tina,

Nora and Pap,

and Grandma Janice looking through some pictures.

And in the background at my house, cheering for USA Team 1 winning the gold metal in their four-man bobsled.

Friday Fill-In # 165

Ah, Friday, once again. Here are the Friday Fill-Ins.

1. A cup of tea makes my stomach sick, just the opposite of most people. The very thought of tea makes my stomach start to feel queasy.

2. Our own things make a place feel like home. I try to not be too materialistic, but there's nothing like my own familiar stuff.

3. Everything has its own beauty and its own detail. I need to practice actually looking, since I spend so much time in my head.

4. Who does not like the taste of strawberries. When I was little I loved them and I told my mother that one day when I was grown up I'd get a whole quart of strawberries just for myself. I still like them, but it's not easy to find the locally-grown ones.

5. Art makes me happy, happy, happy. Have you noticed?

6. LOL I just noticed I forgot to set the timer for the strusel bread I'm making. Hope I can remember to get it out in . . . 12 minutes.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm planning to babysit Nora and Aaron, been looking forward to that all week, tomorrow my plans include working and then a trip to Hobby Lobby, and Sunday I want to (well not really) take back the new camera I got yesterday because it isn't working. Sigh.

Happy Friday, everyone.

Lovely Day

I had lots to do today: put together my Quilt Along With Melody Quilt, go to the bank, get my taxes done, apply for a Homestead Exemption, make chicken noodle soup for Steph's gang, do a load of wash, and grocery shop.


I started out with the quilt and the wash and the soup. Then, I decided to change my mind about the rest and go camera shopping, have lunch at Whole Foods, and go to the early spring show at Krohn Conservatory.


And that's what I did. I got a very sweet and very small camera, had a yummy lunch, and saw some welcome spring flowers. It was just me and the flowers - no one else was in that room.


It sounds like there was a lot of running around involved, but everything is within a few miles of each other.


And then, I still got everything else finished except for the Homestead exemption. Another day for that. And the quilt isn't totally pieced, there are still the rows to put together. But still . . .a lovely kind of day.

Quilted Bag

A work project with a few changes - a quilted bag. The designs are from the Viking Embroidery Club, but I changed the project from a sewing machine cover to a bag.

I'm just not into covering my sewing machines because I use them so much.

I'm finding that I'm not doing much embroidery these days, doing lots of quilting instead. I hadn't been using my "new" machine for much sewing, but that's changing. There are so many stitches and features, and the bed of the machine is so wonderfully large. I have one machine downstairs where I can spread quilts out on the dining room table and one upstairs for piecing and smaller items.

Different seasons, different things.

Differences at the Aquarium

Good choice on a February afternoon to go to the Newport Aquarium, where, as the commercial says, the temperature is always 76 degrees.

The kids know where everything is and what's coming next. Aaron's eager to touch something, anything, in the little pools,

but Nora wants to hurry on by so she won't be asked if she wants to touch something (no!) and heads for the theatre to see what's going on there.

Aaron wants a visit to the "scary shark cage"

while Nora doesn't want to go there but wants to ponder the comings and goings of the colorful fish.

Aaron asks to see the birds and held up a cup with nectar so he can get a bird to come up close and personal

but Nora wants nothing to do with the birds, doesn't even want to go the that section, and finds something else interesting.



That's why it's good to have at least two adults on the Aquarium visit, so both get to see and do what they like.

Friday Fill-In # 164

Friday Fill-Ins on this sunny but still cold morning.

1. Johnny Weir was mentioned in a Christian Science monitor blog that posed the question, "What if skaters wore uniforms like the rest of the athletes?"

2. I haven't watched nearly as much as I'd like of the 2010 Olympics. And it's so fun to watch.

3. And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was overpowered by a flood of creativity and the risk was then to not remain tight in a bud.

4. Eat some dark, dark chocolate if you get an urge. REALLY dark chocolate.

5. Having sweet dreams is nice, but having really interesting, revealing dreams is better.

6. What does it take to finally make a hard decision? After all the thinking, is it one seemingly inconsequential thing that pushes us over? Something like in the Dr. Suess book Horton Hears a Who, "one small Yopp put it over."

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm planning to finally do a Michael's shopping trip, tomorrow my plans include making the "rough draft" of a church banner, and Sunday I want to watch some Olympics.

Happy Friday, everyone.