Canada cost me 150 dollars (which I was saving for my neck tuck)

So I went, finally, on Saturday to apply for my passport. I got a whole boatload of documents and went to the post office to get my picture taken and send in the application. They told me I didn’t need all the documents, just my birth certificate and drivers license. I hope they know what they are doing. Although they do it all the time. I think. It costs 110 dollars for the passport and another 40 for, um, I’m not sure. Taking this digital picture I guess…

Seriously?  Is it illegal to airbrush your passport photo? I wonder if government workers take an in-service on how to make people look less than attractive. Looking at this photo,  I’ve come to the realization that it’s definitely time to consider a bit of a tuck. You see,  the real reason I wrote this blog today with this picture is to send out a plea for money to pay for my neck fix.  Please.

So, when I tell people I am getting a passport the first question is “Where are you going” to which I answer “Canada”. Because I could drive there in a day. And I could go over the border with my passport. And I do love a little Canada now and then. I couldn’t ask for a better neighboring country.

Oh, and speaking of neighboring countries with a little monarchy thrown in-Look what’s coming to a Mall of America near you!

Yep, I am talking THE Diana. Everything Diana. I almost got the vapors when I saw the ad for it.

The dates are completely saved in my book-it’s actually already started and I don’t know how it got by me.

Because of the comments made by Dave……

me-We have to go to the Mall of America-they are having a Diana exhibit.

Dave-What? No one wants to see the Dali Lama

me-Diana

Dave-What kind of diorama?

…….he is not invited anymore.

Lastly, we got a bit of new furniture which I set up in the basement. Only tonight we put another leaf in the center table and I switched the sewing machines around.

It’s still a bit cluttered in this picture. I’ll take a better one next week. I now have 5 tables in my craft room. Jeesh. But there is space to craft.

Jack liked it too.

It’s almost March which means spring is just around the corner. I wonder what the weather is in Canada?

Purging

It’s not what you think. Although I once told my doctor I thought I could lose weight by purging, because I like to eat too much to be anorexic. He said “Not a big fan of the purging”.

So enough about me.

I was in Tacoma last week, spending some fun filled days purging the “hoarding room”.

 

 

Actually, this is what it looked like in 2010, and to be honest, Debbie and Grampa had cleaned it up. A little. There was a bit more floor space when I got there last week. But there was still lots of paper. Lots….of…..paper.

I lost count of the 30 gallon bags of shredded material/recycling, but suffice it to say, we single handedly created at least one ream of recycled paper thereby saving a hectare of rain forest.  Touché Angelina Jolie.

So, after day one, from AM to PM we got this far.

   

See the giant shredder there, last picture, right side? We had that baby running so hot it would stop mid shred. Martha would fan it  a while, and pretty soon it would suck up the paper, and then start again. Look at the size of that thing. Super duper. And it wasn’t nearly big enough. We thought that next time (I shudder to even think there might be a next time) we’ll hire the giant truck shredder. Although even they might be daunted by the task.

But you can see surface and floor space. We measured progress by floor space.

Then, at the end of day 3 (and a half) mission was accomplished.

Before:

After:

Just compare those pictures.

And just look how happy I am

And, after another day and a half, we had a few more bags of clothes and what not.

Actually, at the end of the day, there were twice this many bags and more stuff on the bench, but I had a flight to catch and couldn’t properly document. Sorry.

There was a moment of fun. It was fun to see my parents-whom I took no pictures of because they were supposed to be busy cleaning, but they weren’t. And it was fun to see my sisters, who I didn’t personally take any pictures of because we were too busy cleaning.

But we did get a group photo of the group we went out with during our 3 hour reprieve on Friday. It was Madrona and we went over to the market, then met up with a some knitterly folks for Japanese dinner.

That’s us on the left, Debbie, Martha and me. Then on the right, Michelle, Nancy, Julie and Angela. There was also a small fire in the restaurant while we were eating, which was exciting. They didn’t need the fire though, because the food was delish.

And when I returned home to sunny Minnesota (in the dark), I had a bunch of furniture that Debbie had shipped my way to contend with. I was so excited I immediately threw out 4 bags of clothes. And I’m not done purging yet.

So, how was everyone else’s weekend?

Hurry up Blog

This is a hurry up blog. I am leaving tomorrow for Seattle and have to update my iPod. I am also training my bladder to stretch to 15 times it’s normal capacity. I have a theory that once we get into the air the cabin pressure exerts at least 5x the normal bladder psi until I can no longer stand it. And, since I sit next to the window almost exclusively, well, the two people on the outside are never happy. I usually try to wait until either the drinks come or the outside person has just fallen asleep.

Because that’s the type of flyer I am. And I’ve been doing it for way too long.

And that’s why this is a hurry up blog.

But did you watch Downton Abbey-did you? Jeesh, Mary and Matthew-come ON!

So next week I promise to have some serious news, and probably some pictures out of the crap camera.

Guaranteed to be a little blurry, and slightly off color, but pictures none the less.

Happy Flying to Me!

SuperBowl VII

Or is it 8-no I think we decided that this year it was Superbowl Mystery quilt #7. I am a charter member of the Superbowl Mystery quilt club. Yes I am. I am trying to get Marcia to agree that at the 10th year anniversary of the Superbowl Mystery Quilt I should be given a loyalty gift of a new Bernina. Although, they’d be hard pressed to give me one I don’t already own. Maybe I should hold out for accessories.

Did I mention I do love a good Superbowl Mystery Quilt?

This year was no exception. The food was also delish. Just saying.

I went back into the archives to try to find some records of the previous quilts-

2008

2009

2010

  

2011

2012

See my reflection in my shiny Bernina? I don’t have a picture of the quilt yet-it is actually a small project which I hope to finish on Sunday. Then it will be duly presented in the blog.

So I am missing  a couple of years. I think, given more time, I can find them in the archives (really? I lost interest after 15 minutes-but they are there…somewhere)

It was also VIP last week. I was after the elusive picture of Marcia actually smiling or at least attempting to take a good picture.

It’s like trying to find Bigfoot. Or Nessie. It is next to impossible.

This is probably the best one. Plus I like the quilt.

 

This might be the best one-I have about 20 with closed eyes, frowny expressions, and blurry faces. Sigh. Maybe next time.

This is another cool thing. I think we are going to learn how to make it someday. I can’t wait.

Although, I have sort of decided to do smaller projects for a while. I have lots of big projects that need to be finished.

This week is Debbie’s and Cody’s birthdays. As I am on the way to Seattle next week, I can deliver Debbie’s, but alas Cody’s will be late. Oh well. He’ll be dining at the Wicked Spoon or some such place. So he can wait for a little present from Mommy.

I don’t have much more today. Been a long couple of weeks, with a long week coming up-but then vacation. And did I mention that I’ll be in Tacoma in time for Madrona? Can you say fiber-fest?

Will I need one suitcase? Or two?

 

Annie Oakley was a little confused

First and foremost, happy birthday Grampa on January 27th. Hope it was happy.

 

Now to the business of blogging……

So, I forgot the blog yesterday. Forgot. I meant to blog, I thought about blogging, I took a picture to put on the blog, but then I didn’t blog.

And you know who asked me if I blogged? Really. You have to know. It was Laura, the blog muse. My faithful reader Laura.

I think I’ll post a picture of her, just because-

This is Laura’s Verklempt look. I think it is a suitable look for the day.

Although

 

this one  brings back some fond memories. Being here, in this refrigerator, at this time, was NOT ok.  But you can just feel her elation at the new, spotless, side by side in our soon to be break room.

But seriously, when I have little to say I can’t always fall back on Laura to save the blog. Well, I can, and I usually do, but not today. (OK, obviously I have done it again today-I can see that-don’t bring it up-it’s my blog to do with Laura as I please. And that thing about NOT being OK? Totally an inside joke. Touché blog dissenters)

I just watched a PBS thing about Annie Oakley. And she was a big advocate for woman bearing firearms. Well, not like bearing children, but she did say she believed women should keep a firearm on the nightstand. Dang. I could blast the snore right out of Dave. She would also demonstrate how to conceal a gun in your umbrella to have in case of emergency or when bending someone to your will. I am thinking that if Annie Oakley whipped a firearm out of her umbrella and was demonstrating the business end all up in your grill, you’d be agreeing with whatever she told you to do, or not do. Because that Annie, she did not miss. Ever. But Annie did not believe so much in women having the vote. Really? She’s out packing heat, and encouraging women to pack heat, but not wanting women to vote? I suppose if enough women were carrying concealed and shooting out of their umbrellas who the heck needs the vote? Ok, maybe she wasn’t confused at all.

Yesterday I had the day off which confused me so much I forgot to blog. I didn’t, however, forget to clean the stupid bird cages.  I schlepped the giant cage drawer upstairs and attempted to clean it and put in clean newspaper lining. Sounds easy doesn’t it?

Well, it’s actually not. And just when you were thinking “ok she used Laura for blog filler, certainly she won’t use Jack again”, he shows up. But you didn’t expect him here, did you? DID YOU? No. You did not. Please, don’t make me get all Annie Oakley on you.

And one last thing?

Laura and the amazing moving cat picture.

Feeling better yet?

Lack of (p)interest

Not much to blog about this week as I am still recovering from the girls weekend out.

Sorry, but I love this picture.

I have one thing I’d like to mention. I finished these socks, which were something like the second pair I ever cast on. About 7 pairs later, I finally finished them.

That’s Regia self striping yarn. I personally like the socks but think the fabric would be nicer on a bit of a smaller gauge needle.

Ok, all the people who just nodded off over that last sentence can now WAKE UP. Dave has discovered Pinterest. I knew of Pinterest from another blog, and then Laura came up one day to show me some fascinating thing on the site (because at work, watching paint dry is, for us, sure to be an attention getter). Then Dave got an invitation from someone he works with and the rest is history. He spent about 37 minutes finding the perfect user name-iamlegend-and off he went. It’s his new obsession for the next 20 minutes or so.

And that’s all I know. It snowed this week and we shoveled. Blane came over, Jack got into trouble. Fringe completely messed me up and Downton Abbey….sigh. In other words, same old, same old.

I’ll try to see if I can stir up more excitement for next week.

Girls Night Out

Oh man, the Girls Night Out finally happened, and it happened with a vengeance.

Totally.

I wish I had more blackmail pictures to show, but the crap camera ran out of batteries and besides, it was a little too much fun to keep taking pictures.

But I did get a few.

Here’s the girls, just starting out. Lets see, starting on the right and going clockwise is Lynn, Jenna, me, Sara (the other Sara), Mary, Sue, and Betsy. No idea who the person walking around and getting into the picture is, but she’s very happy about it.

Here we are again. A little later, a little happier, a litte blurrier. Found the Spotted Cow. Gotta love Wisconsin. Again, no idea about that person lurking around the bathroom. And sorry about the blur. It was Jenna’s phone this time.

Then, because of the uncontrollable girls we are, we decided we had to go dancing. And dance we did.

Taking pictures of people dancing around in a darkened bar area has to be some sort of sobriety test, and I was failing badly. But either way I captured Lynn, Sara, and Mary until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I let Lynn throw me around on the dance floor unmercifully. She is a pretty dang good dancer when it comes to spins and twirls. The band was fab and played songs we could all sing to. Sweet.

We ended up back at the Frog in Fountain City-the gruesome threesome.

Really?

Yes Really. I think these girls should be cut off.

(Don’t worry, we had a designated driver and a brand new van. Nothing could be sweeter. Out of the goodness of our hearts, we didn’t even throw up in it)

We stayed at the most beautiful lodge out side of Fountain City, way up on the bluffs (which could have been dangerous had we been able to wander outside after arriving, which we couldn’t. I couldn’t even figure out the radio)

Here’s our view if it were summer-

But it wasn’t

It’s winter but still fantastic. Even the morning after. Which is saying something. (Click the link above-the rest of the house was just as fab)

Staggered home and managed to get to knitting group. I felt kind of like this

Just a wee bit crispy……

and this didn’t help either-

Sigh.

But since that day I have recovered and decided that Girls Night Out was the best time I’ve had in months.

Thanks Girls!