a scary tale

I had to share this with you.

Last night near bedtime (well, after bedtime, but just before going to bed) I was winding down my day by doing a little Internet surfing. I had some music playing in my headphones and was just chilaxin'.

Until I saw something moving on the floor out of the corner of my eye. I quickly looked down, and saw a SPIDER!!!!! It had crawled from under my desk, where MY FEET WERE, to underneath Ludi's desk. Since I don't deal well with spiders, I did what any scaredycat would do.

I promptly called for Ludi to come take care of it.

He did a good job too, catching it in a cup. Of course, he proceeded to then tease me with the trapped-in-a-cup spider, but oh well... we can't have everything, can we?

of course I got a picture

It was a giant of a spider. Not tarantula sized, but still. When you're a chicken like me, it's HUGE. And it moved really fast. EEEEEEKS!!! I didn't notice until I looked at the picture though that it has hairy legs. I DID notice at the time that it has fang-type things.

It gives me the heebie-geebies just thinking about it. *gah*

it's coming to get me!

We employed a catch-and-release strategy with this beast. Once it was in the cup, we opened the window and threw it out.


"and STAY out!"


xxx

A techy weekend

What a gorgeous day here today. Weather-wise, that is. It's cool, in the high 60s, and mostly sunny. There is also a lovely breeze making all the leaves on the trees rustle. A lovely sound, don't you think?

How is the weather where you are?

We have had a techy kind of weekend. Doing maintenance, and backing up files and all that. Some of it went smoothly, and some didn't. That's the thing about technology. It's fanTAStic when it goes smoothly and works just as it should. But when it doesn't, it is a real pain in the you-know-what. And sometimes things can go horribly wrong. I'm sure you all have computer-related horror stories, so you know what we went through this weekend. Bleh!

I finally broke down and bought an external HD to back up my files.

Western Digital My Passport Studio

It's so tiny! It's hard to believe they can fit 500GB into such a tiny package. Actually they probably can fit MORE space into an even smaller package. (Technology is a wonder!) It makes the 60GB hard drive inside my computer seem really puny. Anyways, I chose this particular drive because it was reviewed by a Mac magazine that we get from the UK, MacFormat. They tested 5 different external hard drives in various areas, and this model won. I figured they knew their stuff, so I took their advice. It's nice because you can connect it via a USB cable, OR a FireWire cable. So if I lose one cord, I'll have a back up. ;)

Now that we have had a few months of summer, I'm really looking forward to fall. Especially now that there have been a few days of almost fall-like weather. I don't want it to snow, yet, but sweatshirt weather is always something to look forward to.


Till next time,


xxx

Slow Sunday

Hello again everyone!

I wish I had a really cool opening phrase. A catchy greeting of some sort. I suppose if I said the same thing at the beginning of every post, it would be really boring. It wouldn't be "a cool greeting" anymore, it would just be an "overlooked opening phrase".

Still wish I had one, though.

How has the weekend been going for everyone? Has anyone done anything fun lately? It's Back-To-School time in the States, right? If classes don't start next week, then they will soon. Mom, have you been thumbing your nose at your fellow teachers who aren't retired yet? Sleeping in when they are getting up early to get their rooms ready for students? Do you miss it yet?

Ha!!  Silly question!

For those of you who are new to my world, Mom was a 4th grade teacher for ... what... some 30-odd years. She's retired now, and loving every August that she doesn't have to go back to school. Loving every wintery morning that she doesn't have to wait and see if there's a school delay. Loving every lunch time that she doesn't have playground duty.

At least I'm pretty sure she's loving it.

Another lazy weekend here. Today it's been raining all day, and it might rain all night too, so the weather man says. Since it hasn't rained much all summer, I don't mind. It has to rain a lot (a week or more) for me to start minding it, though. It's cooler too. It really feels like fall already! We haven't had much of a summer here. We had, what, two weeks of hot weather, and the rest has been fairly mild, or even cold (as far as summer temps go). I guess that's how it goes here!

I finished another crochet project a while ago. Do you want to see it?

Yes?

Well, ok, if you insist...

soft and cozy

It's a scarf of flowers connected by little leaves.

close up

and it goes perfectly with my blue coat, don't you think?

cheerful colors

A good way to pretty-up a gray and rainy day! So far it hasn't been cool enough to wear a scarf. I'm patiently waiting for those days. It's more of a spring colored scarf, but I'll wear it this fall a few times anyways, I think. Though I am working on another scarf. That has more fall colors. Would you like to see pictures of that? If you do, then let me know!

Enjoy the rest of your day, friends.



xxx

edit: hmm...I was a little slow on the typing there, wasn't I? The title of the post is "Slow Sunday", but blogger put the date on as Monday, because I'm 35 minutes past Sunday. oops!! 

Too long again

Forgive me, Blogger, for I have sinned.

It's been too long since my last post.

I can't really say that I don't have the time to do it. I do. I guess I just don't make it a priority. Shame on me. I'm letting Dot Com down.


*hangs head in shame*



ok, are we over it now? Yeah? Super!

We went on a shopping spr yesterday. woohoo! (Not a whole SPREE, just a little one - a SPR.) We haven't done that in a long time. Somehow there is always something else to do on Mondays besides go downtown for some shopping. Isn't it funny how that works out? Huh. Anywhoo, we didn't find much that was on our list, but I did find something I've been wanting for quite a while, and just saved up enough money to splurge on.

smallish messenger-type bag

Can you smell the leathery goodness? It's so strong it almost smells like a farm. It's just a simple bag with a long strap so I can wear it around me for hands free shopping/walking, which I really prefer. It is 10in. wide x 10in. tall x 4.5in deep. Big enough to carry what I need, but not so big that I put too much in it and it gets too heavy. I used it today, and it's very comfortable.

inside shot

Inside it's got a zipped pocket and some smaller slots for credit/business cards, a pocket for a cell phone, pen slots, and in the front is a slim pocket too.

Just a simple, basic bag. Not too fussy, classic enough that it can be used for quite a while (not trendy). It's not terribly green (eco-friendly) since it's made of leather, but if you consider that I won't have to buy three new bags to replace this one, then that's environmentally friendly, right? Semi-green?

Pale green?

Celery?

No? Ok, oh well. I like it anyways. I think it will get better as it ages too. (Especially when it doesn't smell like a farm anymore.)

I hope you all are enjoying your August. I can't believe how time flies. Before we know it, it will be winter. And then it will be Christmas!



(In  137 days, to be exact...)


Enjoy your summer!!!



xxx

Pretty Peonies

It's been rainy and cool here the past few days. You know me though. I prefer it that way! But I'm feeling like I need a bright spot. A few weeks ago I bought these pretties.

giant pink blooms

They smelled very good. So summery! They were lovely. I think I've always loved peonies. We had two big bushes of them (or one giant one? Not sure which!) at home growing up, and I always think of those when I see peonies now. Maybe some day when I'm a grown up and have a yard of my very own I'll have some too.

partially open

The just opening ones were so interesting, their different colors. They lasted the whole week too, which was great!

essence of summer

You just can't beat that, can you.

Perfection.

I hope these pictures brightened your day!


xxx

Happy Christmas in July!

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

Hello everyone!

It is 154 days until Christmas. woohoo! Normally I don't count them until December, but since it's Christmas in July I thought it'd be nice to know!

I've been watching QVC online today. For the whole weekend they are doing Christmas items. It really puts me in the mood! I want to put my tree up while listening to holiday tunes, and then watch A Christmas Story. It's not too early, is it? I'm just getting a jump start on the season!

Remember a few weeks ago I made the post about the new stash? I figured out what I wanted to make with it. I did a little Christmas in July package for home.

And I finally finished Lisa's gift from last Christmas. Terrible, huh? But it gave me a great excuse to send a Christmas in July package to her! This is what I made for her...

scarf for Lisa

I hope that she likes it. I hope she got it already too. Guess I should say "spoiler alert!" I had made one for my sister and myself too, in different colors though. After I finished this last one, I decided to not make this pattern again. Got a little burnt out on it! But I do like how they turned out. This is the yarn I used for them:

Shimmer™ yarns by Knit Picks®

It's 70% Baby Alpaca, and 30% Silk. Very nice stuff! The purple is called Galaxy, the very light green is Eucalyptus, and the gray is Cumulus. I love the names they assigned to them! Knit Picks has great yarn, if you ask me.

I also did a package for Mom and Pam.

awww....cute, huh?

I did a little mitten garland (remember my mitten post?) and also did some old fashioned light bulbs. Those great big ones, the C7s? They turned out pretty cool! It was a little tricky at first, getting them to look right. I think it took me 4 tries before I liked them. But I really liked how they turned out. I'm going to have to make some for myself too, I think!

These were also included in both packages.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

I didn't have time to make all 4 for each of them. They each got one. These are definitely going to be made for myself too! Just love them.

I hope that you all have a great Christmas in July if you celebrated it. I know I did!

Have a holly, jolly Christmas. It's the best time of the year...


xxx

A nation in mourning

Orange Madness turned to Orange Sadness.

We lost our World Cup final game. Darnit. The guys on the team were so sure that they could pull it off too. Oh well. 2nd place in the world is still good. You'll get 'em next time, guys!

The weather finally broke here. I thought it would never get here! But on Wednesday afternoon, this was what the radar looked like.

We're under the smaller bottom red storm cell

Luckily I was already home from work (since I have to walk from the bus stop). The wind was TERRIBLE. Scary terrible. Later we heard on the news about all the trees down everywhere, and somewhere north of us an electrical tower bent in half. YIKES! And downtown, I just saw on my way home tonight, that a tree at a usually very busy bus stop fell over onto the bus stop shelter! I don't think that anyone was hurt (we didn't hear of any injuries from that on the news. At least not yet.), thankfully. And also further north in a camping ground there were a dozen or more campers that got picked up by the wind, and deposited in the lake. With people still in them. Yes, there were injuries (and worse) in that event, unfortunately.

Everywhere else were there branches down, leaves blowing everywhere etc. This is what it looked like at work today.

branches everywhere up and down our street

It was over quickly though, and today the weather is just beautiful. Low 70s, and light wind. A perfect day.

I hope everyone is having a good week. Any fun plans for the weekend? I think mine includes sleeping, since that hasn't been going well lately thanks to the heat here. But this weekend should be more comfortable at night. YAY!

Maybe it'll be cool enough to clean?

I kind of hope not, though.

Enjoy your weekend folks!!


xxx