Another Day in New York City

Did that grab your attention - LOL!! Yes, this was an actual real place on the south side.

We were lucky both days of our tour that we had pretty darned good weather. I did get on the bus without a hat, and jumped off quickly at the first stop and bought a hat from a sidewalk vendor. Pink, and it says New York Princess.






This is a wall that is a memorial to all the children killed during the 9/11 attack. All these photos and cards and mementos. Was really very moving.






See that window next to the "feel" word on the banner? I think that is where Keith does his broadcast for MSNBC! My political resource idol.

We actually got off the bus here and went into the building. Didn't take a tour, but did go through the gift shop where I bought myself a Countdown coffee mug and a Top Chef apron.

I turned around after taking that photo and got this photo of Rockefeller Center. Where those tables and umbrellas are is where the ice skating happens in the winter. And straight ahead between those buildings is the huge lighted tree.

The only "famous" person we saw was Anne Curry. She is very tiny!

Connie and I had the most amazing lunch at a Cuban restaurant that day. She had a sandwich with a pulled pork and pickles, grilled like a panini. I had a great pork dish with an amazing cuban rice and bean side dish. Just awesome.
Coming up this week will be some wonderful photos of our trip up to Cooperstown. It was our second visit to this little town and we would definitely go again.

What I'm hoping to be writing about in the next day or two is the arrival of the new Templeton!! Full moon tonight, and Genie was having contractions still about 10 minutes apart about an hour ago. Guess I better try to get some sleep, in case my phone rings in the night!!

A Partial Tour of New York City

I love taking the open air bus tours in cities I visit. The first day Connie and I took the bus to the south end and then the north on the second day. This is the MOMA which was near the end of the second day. I really would have loved about 3 more days in the city to explore things a bit closer.
Did I tell you about the horse biting me???





this is a shot of it actually happening!! Stupid me! At least I had my hand open. It really was just a bit of a "love nibble"...I learned a lesson here though. These officers and animals are there to do a really, really important job, not be photo ops for the tourists. I also wish I could figure out how to crop these photos before posting them so I can eliminate some of the belly!

This is my friend Connie choosing some fashionable attire at the Macy's in Times Square. It's the Macy's anchor store and largest in the company. I thought it had a very confusing layout. The sales people were real New Yorkers....didn't really care much about customer service. Sorry if that is a generality but there it is. The coolest thing about the store was the upper floors that still maintain their old wooden escalators




I was surprised I left this store without buying anything! Oh wait, that's not true. I bought some face wash from the Origins counter.

In the fashion district is this very cool statue. Being a bit of a sewing person, it was quite touching.





And down about two blocks on the other side is
THIS






Being the Project Runway fan that I am I was thrilled to see it. I never did get to Mood though, but I surely will my next visit to NYC.

See ya soon with more of my tour!

Life with a Dog in the House

I had forgotten what it was like to have a dog in the house. Everywhere I go, there he is! My new best friend. He really is a very good dog. Loves to chase the ball, or anything else we throw for him.

Jillian had a temp of 103 today....wondering if it really was just too much sun at the waterslides yesterday. Also a headache. Lots of water, cool cloth to the head and some kids ibuprofen seems to have it under control, but we are going to hang out and chill today, just to be careful.

Up and Running Again

A pledge....to get on the blogging role again. Thanks so much for those of you who pop in and leave me a note, it means a lot.
Many, many things have gone on since I was posting regularly. It's now almost the end of July, and we are awaiting the phone call of the arrival of the newest baby Templeton!!! The due date is actually the 29th, and Carter arrived a week past due, but we are all thinking it could be this weekend. I was able to go down for a bit of a visit last weekend, after helping sister Carol with her garage sale.
And there is the photo of a couple of sleepy guys!! I had fun playing with Carter for a couple of hours while Genie was able to get some rest. I remember those days being so very pregnant!! They have settled into their new MUCH larger house and will be enjoying bringing baby boy Henry home in just a short time, I'm sure.

My garden is so far behind!! Maybe tomorrow I'll get myself out there to clean up the herb garden anyway. Jillian and Ethan and dog Cosmo are her for the weekend, while their parents enjoy their wedding anniversary away for a couple of days.

I did get a quilt done (okay, no binding yet) and it is on my guest bed, over the kids!
This is a quilt I started about 3 or 4 years ago, using the tri rec rulers. I love how the circular look comes about.

My small group had an extra sew day this month and we were able to put together two oversized lap quilts for the husbands of two of our members husbands. One has been recently diagnosed with an advanced cancer, and has begun a chemotherapy regime and the other has been suffering with age related health issues for quite some time. Two of our other members husbands are dealing with Alzheimer's, so we are thinking they all need some extra hugs these days.....

I am still planning to post my photos and share some stories from my New York trip, so stay tuned for that!! Be back soon. Really. Truly...I mean it!

July and not sure if it's summer yet!

Our weather has been down right odd.....I was even tempted to turn my furnace on yesterday morning to take the chill off in here. Today, was pretty darned nice though.

Here is my latest new start. I am trying a different method of counted cross stitch where you do a 10 x 10 square block at a time, and you "park" your leftover thread. I've done two blocks, one of top of the other and now moving to the lower right block. I'll post photos as I go along. This is 16 count cloth, which I've discovered is really the smallest I can work on. Can you tell what it is so far????

We had the adventure of the missing kitty last week. Rocco, who loves to be outside in the evening hours didn't come in on Monday night. His curfew is 10 and he's pretty good about it, though when the mousing is good he sometimes isn't in until 12 or 1. He has been gone overnight once before. This time about the third night, I accepted that he was "gone" either to be some coyote or eagles late night snack or something equally horrible to imagine. We were looking and calling, checking the roads. He has a microchip so we thought if the city had picked him up they would have called. Then Saturday morning, on Lynn's 59th birthday, he sauntered in the door like "ho hum, what' s up?" No sign of injury or starvation. I'm guessing somewhere, someone invited him in and he thought he'd just stay a few days.

His big brother Dutch was even happy to see him, spent a few minutes licking Rocco's face and ears. And that day he actually kind of followed him around. Very sweet.

Tonight I am cooking the never done ribs on the grill. I did Emeril's dry rub, then put them on for the 2 1/2 hours. It has now been 3 1/2 hours, Lynn is starving and they still aren't done.....GRRRRRR . Once in a while I make great ribs, and then these things happen.

Will let you know how they come out!

Summer Time.....

Looking WAY back here. This must have been about 1958 0r 59. That's me on the right, topless. We lived in Kennewick. That is my older brother and two friends in the pool as well. My question is
WHAT is with that WATER???

I'm starting to think that summer has arrived up here in the Pacific Northwest. I actually moved the fan in from the garage and had doors and windows open yesterday and today. Mid 70's, just the right temperature for me.

My sister Nancy is having a birthday next month and I want to take these old photos I got put on disc and make her a special one featuring her!!! Plus some music. I'm wondering if any of you have a program you like to use to create such things.

For my quilting buddies out there.....here is my design wall currently. The rows were created by members of my small group. We each picked a theme, mine was old fashioned blocks in new pretty florals. Now trying to figure out how to put them all together. I think I'm going with these assorted floral strips that read med/dark.

See the block tot he right? That is one I did with crayons. I think I'm going to do some embroidery around the colors and make it a pillow. Put it on the chair on my porch.

Off to the gym now, day two!! In a row!!

A Moving Forward kind of day

The hardest step of changing your life is the first step, right??? So my gym shoes are on and I am taking that step out the door and heading to the gym!!

Which means I am stepping away from the computer!!! Proof as you can see.

I pulled my gym bag out of the closet, shook off the dust, figured out my combination lock and added two vital things to my bag. Plus a packet of the green tea that I like to add to my refill of water.

Okay, supplies in hand lets make a break for it!!

Oh my, it's such a nice day. Maybe I'll work in the yard instead. Water some of the things I planted recently. Throw down some of the cosmo and bachelor button seeds I bought......NO!!! Get in the car!!

I'm currently listening to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Took me a bit of time to get into it, but now it has definitely hooked me. I have two books to download via audible.com....maybe I should just run back in and do that while I'm thinking about it.

NO NO NO!!! I am not going back into that chair!!! PUT keys in ignition and GO!!

Alright I'm on my way now! Oh! It's the first day of the Shop Hop!! The tent is up at Tangled Threads, the greatest shop in the county!! I could just run in, say hello, see the shop hop quilt......

NO! NO! NO! The shop hop goes through the weekend. I can stop another time. Yeah, I'm here! See the sign? Fitness Center. Going down the stairs to the center is no problem, coming up them when I am done can be a challenge!!!

Since I have been here last, they have put in new machines, new carpet and paint. My mission today is 15 minutes on the treadmill and 15 on the elliptical. No speed or range parameters, just get the time in. With some stretches in between the two.

It certainly smells better in here than it did!!! This is a pretty good time of day, the mega Mom's are done and gone home and the after work fitness monsters are still at work!!

Was a really good workout, I met my goals, now to race home to be there for the kids so Krista can get to work on time. Let's plan on this being a regular deal again, exercise....priceless.

Kindergarten orientation

It was an exciting evening for Ethan to have his kindergarten orientation!! After meeting in the cafeteria and hearing a few words from the principal the kids all walked down to spend a bit of time in the classroom. Jillian escorted him in and sat him down. Then the siblings and adults were invited to go to the library and leave the new students for about half an hour. As I was going, I took another peak back at him and got this great shot of him expressing his true feelings!!! What a lip! And he had no idea I was there with the camera. Jillian really had more trouble leaving him in there than Krista or I - LOL!!
When we went back down to pick him up, he was in the center of the group enjoying a story and having a great time. I'm sure when he starts in the Fall, he'll do just fine.

More exciting school news....Jillian was the school's second grade spelling bee champion!! We were all so proud of her. It's the first year to "compete". Tears came to my eyes at the end, when she spelled her word correctly, and her first reaction was to turn and give a big hug to her friend who came in second place.

School is out now for the summer. She had another great year.

The next school year will be very different for me too. Ethan will be going full day, two days one week and then three days the next. With the newest baby in the family due this summer, I'm sure I'll find myself driving down to see him often. Right now I think they are sticking to the name choice of Henry. Big brother Carter is going to have a very rude awakening very soon.....

So glad to report that I was able to purchase a new battery charger for my digital camera. I'll definitely be snapping lots of photos again, but I will be posting the photos I have, here in the next several days. Need to be back on the blogging track.

And then......

I have been searching and searching and wondering, and turning things over, and cleaning out drawers, and searching for
MY CAMERA BATTERY CHARGER!!! GRRRR!!!
I know where it was the last time I used it, but I haven't been able to locate it since I came home from New York. And I feel so naked somehow posting here and not having a photo.
Enough searching. I'll go online and try to order a new charger and in the meantime I'm going to start posting photos that are ON my memory card and go from there.

Falling in Love, Again....

Corny title, I know.
I love music. I am moved by music. It makes me smile. It makes me dance. It lets me cry.
I've always loved it. As early as I can remember I've had a radio. When transistor radios came out I had to have one. When I was a young teen I had this boxy ugly radio that I listened to every single night as I went to sleep. And every night my Dad would come downstairs and turn it off after I fell asleep.
I used to spend my precious babysitting dollars ($.50 an hour) on new 45's. My sister Carol still has some of them in a shoe box on a shelf in her study. I had a record player that always seemed to have some amount of coinage taped on the arm because I never seemed to remember to buy a new needle, or couldn't find a new one when I wanted it.
I bought albums.....I still have many of them. One of the most played albums I ever had was Tapestry by Carol King. Just a couple of weeks ago Lynn took me to see Carol King along with James Taylor at Key Arena in Seattle. The seats were unbelievably uncomfortable. I think they designed them with jockey's in mind. It made me feel better every time a person of "average" size would squeeze into one near me and complain.
The concert was amazing. So many memories. They were both such graceful, gracious performers. Lynn has always had an incredible music memory. He can tell you who played in what band whenever. He was talking about some of the people playing with Carol and James and he mentioned the drummer. Since I had my handy dandy iPod Touch with me, I googled the guy. Yep, he had played with several bands we had seen in the past. It was kind of fun doing this search so I googled some other artists. For some unknown reason, I plugged in Nicolette Larson. Turns out she was married to the drummer on the stage. Okay, that was weird.
In our 40 years of coupleness we have seen many, many concerts. Sharing a love of music has been a strong bond for us.
Which brings me to this post. I have always loved Mary Chapin Carpenter. We have seen her many times in concert and I have bought everything she has recorded. Then she kind of disappeared about a year or so ago. Turns out she had a pulmonary embolism. She is recovered now and just released a new CD. To iTunes I went and downloaded it. It is GREAT!!!! While I was listening to it, I cruised through some other names in music that I really like. Up popped Chris Young. He is amazing. He won Nashville Star a couple of years ago. And he had a 3 track CD available, which I immediately downloaded. And I have been listening to two of them over and over and over...and falling in love with his voice, again.