"Honey, I'm home!"

Didjamissme? OK, admit it, you surfed by more than once, sorry!!

We are beginning the research towards our retirement home in Arizona. We drove south to the LA area to overnight at my sister's house on the way to Tucson. She was away, so we visited with the cat, lol.

Retirement for dh will be April 2008, unless his company decides to lay him off first. While that sounds horrible, it just isn't. His company is downsizing at at an alarming rate, taking most of it's business back to Germany. Lay-off would be accompanied by a huge severance package, or patience will be rewarded by the traditional retirement perks.

Nonetheless, we are doing a great deal of internet searching to decide upon style and ammenities for our future home and went to the greater Tucson area to scout neighborhoods, traffic patterns, etc., and to get the general feel of the area to see if it would likely be a good match.


We fell absolutely IN LOVE. We came a hair away from signing on a home, but were wise enough to realize that if everything wasn't aligned correctly, then it probably just wasn't meant to be. Didn't actually mean to go inside with a realtor, really we didn't, it just happened that she was checking on her listing when we were pulling the sheet from the info-tube!
This is a sunset picture that we took while we were in an hour and a half traffic standstill. Unfortunately a fatality had occured and poor old I-10 just doesn't hold gazillions of holiday travellers well.

We're home safe and sound in N. CA after 2000 miles of driving (and another stay at my sister's on the return trip-and actually got to see her, lol).

I've accounted for 2 of 3 of my daughters on this New Year's Eve, and hope you all are safe and enjoying your evening your most favorite way. (Our's is being home and in our jammies after a dip in the hottub.)

Happy New Year!

On account it's the holiday, and I don't have ONE original thought left, lol...I've stolen this MeMe from Dorothy who stole it from DebR, yadda, yadda...please feel free to follow the trail.

Do you own a gun? No.

What do you think of hot dogs? The more mustard, the merrier. They MUST be Omaha Steak's version too btw. Grilled to a crisp.

What’s your favorite Christmas song? I must be getting cynical, "Momma Got Run Over by a Reindeer," came to mind first.

What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Starbucks fresly ground Verona. One Splenda, thank you very much.

Can you do push-ups? Yes actually, I'm good for 10.

What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? My diamond studs my dh gave to me the first time we met.

What is your secret weapon to lure the opposite sex? My smile? Dunno.

Middle name? Jean

Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment:
1. Wish I was closer to the space heater
2. I've had my oatmeal, now let's blow this popstand!
3. Are we there yet?

Name 3 drinks you regularly drink:
1. Coffee, coffee, coffee.

What time did you wake up today? 4:53am - digital clocks are the worst!

Current hate? Never

Dislike? Frequently, lol. As to what? My own self-image, when I know I ain't that bad!

Favorite place to be? I ditto Dorothy, behind the wheel. I love to drive!

Least favorite place to be? In a dirty public bathroom.

Where would you like to go? Arizona, and did I mention, are we there yet?

Do you own slippers? Yes, blue knitted ones by moi.

What shirt are you wearing? My green fluffy terrycloth bathrobe, nope, haven't gotten rid of it yet!

Do you burn or tan? Burn & peel

Favorite color(s)? Blue baby blue...never waivering.

Would you be a pirate? Yeah, especially if I could be like Rupert on Survivor, argh!

What is your favorite holiday? My birthday, I get to be selfish with a license

What songs do you sing in the shower? From Sesame Street, "That's why I sing, sing in the bathtub, cuz I like the way my voice sounds so loud and clear!" (Yeah, I never get the words right!)

What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? Ants and crawly things.

What’s in your pockets right now? Hopefully not the used tissue I'm so famous for leaving. (I'm not the one who does the wash.

Last thing that made you laugh? dh and I both selecting the same random letter for a computer drive as "Q", ok so I'm weird!

Best bed sheets as a child? anything fresh from the laundry line

Worst injury you’ve ever had? Toboggan hit & run, 6" stitches and LOTS of hair shaved off while a sophomore in a new high school, new city, etc.

Are your parents still together? Both are deceased, 1985, 1997

Do you wish on shooting stars? ABSOLUTELY

What is your favorite book(s)? Bridges of Madison County, Tuesdays with Morrie

What is your favorite candy? Thats a toughy, Payday or Heath.

What song did you have played at your wedding? Eloped in a park. Does that make the music "The birds-n-bees?"

How is the weather outside right now? 38º, partly cloudy and ridiculously cold

What was your first thought this morning when you woke up? WHY isn't the heater on by now?

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Consider yourself tagged, if you wish.

Mostly, I just want to wish you a Happy Holiday and wonderful New Year for 2007.

Fitzy

He knows if you've been bad or good!

Happiest of Holidays to everyone!

Wisely, I surrendered !

(image clickable for enlarged view)

Last Thursday I showed the two blocks that I had finished for a project that was due yesterday (Monday) for our office Christmas Secret Santa luncheon. We have only 2 ladies at our office, and I was fortunate to have chosen the "easy recipient" as far as gift-giving was concerned. I initially intended to make her a quilt to keep warm in the edit room. She's a "thin mint", very tiny, and always cold. As a gift from her Secret Santa(me), she received a mug and an assortment of teas. The game we play is to decide who gave you the gift. Her first pick was me. OK, so I guess I'm transparent. I'm the Office Mother, always concerned for my kidlets, you just can't shut that OFF. After her guess on the first package, I pulled the wrapped quilt from behind my back...if I had given that first everyone would have known where it came from. I guess it really didn't matter after all, now did it!

Once again, my ideas and expectations were wildly out of my reach. Will I EVER learn? Each block took 30 minutes (paper-pieced) and by Sunday morning I had completed only 16. Mind you, on Saturday my errands included a bank, haircut, Target, lottery, grocery and Starbucks, and on Sunday I had to be at work from 11-4. I intended to be removing the paper from the blocks on Sunday, but I got involved with the tribute we were shooting and that never got done. I had made the decision late Saturday that she could just use it for whatever...a small lap warmer, a wallhanging, a table topper. She's a young lady, mid-20's who's fiance is a resident....good as a starving college student, lol.

I utility machine quilted around the blocks and once on the diagonal with invisable thread. I was up at 3:30am yesterday morning (woke without the alarm-ha!) and put on the binding and hand-stitched it down. Got it in the wash during my shower before work and it was wrapped and ready to go.

The lavish quilt shrunk to a finished 28" square or so. It is hung with care in her cubicle right behind her laptop. I'm happy. She's thrilled.

Sometimes you just have to surrender, glad I listened to the little voices.

Um...WIP "Thursday" ??

Good Morning! (Afternoon/Evening)

Working full-time puts a cramp in my sewing time, but I try to squeeze it in wherever I can. So my WIP Wednesday melds into WIP Thursday...Friday...whatever!

I am still doing the MQ on the faux log cabin as previously blogged, but I need a lap quilt as a Secret Santa gift for a co-worker. I used the paper-pieced pattern from Quilter's Cache and love the way these are looking. If this doesn't use up my "avacado/sage" stash, I don't know what else to do! We are only supposed to spend $15, I consider my scraps as freebies, and most likely have something leftover for the backing. Heck, I have batting scraps as well that I will piece together.

This lap quilt will get alot of use, my recipient is one of our Producers who spends a huge time in our edit rooms. We have to keep them cold to preserve the edit machines themselves. Makes it really cold for the operator howsomever.

Do you have a recommended size for this lap quilt? The blocks measure 7" or so (if I remember right.)

Edited: To repair link, it took me FOREVER to figure out how to get back in to edit!!!

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony-CA style

Many know I've moved from Ohio to CA. I thought the transition would be easy. I didn't take into consideration the fact that being, well being "my age" would have any play in how well I would assimilate into life on the west coast.

I am constantly surprised by things here, some are cultural, some are climatical. But OH! The traditions are the ones that are grabbing my attention the most.

Take last evening.

I work for a small local community television station. My husband and I have been trained in camera operation on the side, and took up the assignment of covering the Mountain View Tree Lighting Ceremony. We donned our parkas and comfy shoes and were at our cameras at the ready at 5pm. DH had the wide shots, located at the rear of the seating area and I was up near the front for the close-ups. We were LIVE. We had a blast, got a little cold, were amazed at the goobers who have no notion that they shouldn't stand right in front of a huge television camera on a tripod, or that a 6' adult with a child on shoulders are hard to film thru even if you are on a riser...argh.

My real amazement...and my total shock was yet to come. Obviously I'm in denial that my expectations had possibly gotten the better of me. Aren't Christmas trees (ESPECIALLY THOSE PICKED FOR CEREMONIAL TREE LIGHTING!) supposed to be elegant evergreens? (OK, so in San Fran., there is even the artificial one at the wharf that is relatively acceptable to me, lol.) I wanted all twinkly lights, and feel the total awesome-ness of it's beauty. What I got was this:
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I guess if you put enough presents UNDER it, it might be OK...sheesh.

Oh yeah, and to make matters worse, DH got the good parting shot with the blurry lights fading to black.

Bah Humbug.

Good thing I wasn't in charge of cropping photos, huh?

Tagged for a MeMe!

Tagged by DD#2 for a MeMe...gee thanks! 8^)
(You can access her blog from my sidebar, I can't figure out to do it now on beta-boo!)

5 favorite Christmas Songs:

1) Silent Night
2) White Christmas
3) Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer
4) Deck The Halls
5) Twelve Days of Christmas

Yeah, DD#2, I changed it to add "Favorite"...

Basically I love ANY Christmas music that I know the words to, and the louder I can sing it, the better! (In private of course! The kids used to just hate it when I sang out loud, I couldn't be THAT bad, huh?)

If you would like to participate, consider yourself "TAGGED", leave me a post too, lol.