The potato salad was a success.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend! It was Memorial Day weekend in the USA, and here it was Pinksteren (Pentecost), so Monday was a day off. Yippee! I can’t remember that happening before. Both holidays on the same weekend. We took advantage of it and had a little cookout at Ludi’s parents. We brought the hamburgers and potato salad, and they supplied the grill.

The grill with the yummy burgers

Another thing I can’t remember is if I've made potato salad since living here. It seems like I have, but it must have been a long time ago. At any rate, I made the salad this weekend. According to all sources, it was good. I made it a little differently this time. I was lazy and didn’t want to chop up a whole bunch of different vegetables to put in (onion, bell pepper, carrots, etc) so I got some pre-cut soup vegetables and used those. There were some things in the bag of veggies that I wouldn’t normally have used, but other things that we always have. I think I liked it! I KNOW I liked how easy it was. Opening a bag and dumping instead of chopping. What’s not to love about that?

The salad and the rest of the spread

The weather was great for the Memorial Day/Pinksteren Cookout. Maybe a little warm and sunny, but it was breezy so that made up for it. And no rain. There’s nothing that can ruin a cookout faster than rain. We even walked to their house, so Ludi could enjoy some of his favorite beer, Palm. (No drinking and driving here, folks!)

All in all, it was a good holiday weekend. How was yours?


xxx

Summer is almost here!

The weather has definitely been summery here this week. It was in the low 80s yesterday (that’s high 20s for my Celsius friends), and will be again today I think. I had the windows open yesterday and had that first whiff of summer. You know the one. The warm fresh air smell? Not freshly mowed grass, or flowers, just sun-warmed fresh air. It was lovely. It made me think that summer might not be so bad after all.

Then I had to cook dinner. And the kitchen go overly hot. And I re-thought my previous notion about summer being not so bad.

Anyways, summer is coming, whether I like it or not. Maybe I’ll try to enjoy it this year.

In other news, my friend took me shopping for my birthday (Hi Friend! You know who you are!!!) and gifted me yarn! YAY!!! Yippee!!! I loves me some yarn!

I got this to probably make some socks.

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Tweed ( color #141)

I haven’t found a pattern yet. I have a lot of other projects on my plate right at the moment (which is also fantabulous. Loving the knitty busy. Busy knitty. Ha, there’s a fun new word. Busiknitty.). I’m sure I’ll find something!

She also got me the yarn to make a single-skein scarf.

Lana Grossa Magico II Meilenweit (color #3503)

I’m making Frangiflutti (pattern on Ravelry). The owner of the yarn shop had made one up in this same yarn, and it was really neat. I love how the rows lengthen on one side, and I liked the ribble effect. Fun scarf!

In still more news...my mom and three of her friends came to visit at the beginning of the month. Wow, what a fun week that was! I’ll try and make a separate post about that. In the near future. I hope.

You know how these things go.


xxx

It's Spring!

Is it the first day of Spring already?! WOW! That sorta snuck up on me! I shouldn't be so surprised though. The weather here has been just beautiful.

Ludi is loving the fact that winter is over.

I sort of feel like "Wait, did we even have a winter?"

Well, the nicer weather is going to stay around for a while, so I'll have to wait until next year for more dreamy snow. Instead I'll be happy with these

daffodils!!!

There's a median a few blocks away at an intersection, and they have it planted with a whole bunch of daffodils. Or are they narcissus? I can never really tell the difference. They're yellow and so springy and just beautiful en mass like that. I remember it being more flowers though. Perhaps they need separated...or thinned... what's that word for what you do when bulb flowers naturalize and multiply and you need to spread them out more or they'll choke each other out? I can't remember.

Whatever it's called.

shines like the sun

They sure are pretty.

Enjoy your Spring Day!


xxx

Spring is coming!

It should be here in full force soon. It's still a little chilly here, but with these in bloom, it can't be far away, can it?

purple stripes!

Sorry about the blur on that photo. You should see the other shots - this was the best one! Wait...

...you SHOULD see the other shots.

what is my phone looking at? The dirt?!

slightly better, but not great

I should have known to take my camera with me on my walk the other day. But I totally didn't think about it until I saw the crocus. Which at first I thought was a bunch of garbage strewn across the ground. There were clumps of white in the lawn behind the recycling bins in the neighborhood. At first I was cursing out the lazy SOBs who can't be bothered to clean up after themselves, or are too lazy to throw their trash into a bin that is less than 3 feet away from them. This is what I thought when I saw it from 100 yards or more.

Obviously I need new glasses. Because it was groups of crocus. All over the city they have crocus planted in grassy areas. This one is just a little sparse, so I couldn't tell that's what it was.

I was happy it wasn't trash, though.

Speaking of trash, why can't people clean up after themselves? Why do they think that littering is ok? And don't even get me started on the people who let their dogs do their business on the sidewalk and then don't clean it up. I have a whole new vocabulary for THOSE people.

So has spring sprung there? Is it getting ready to?


xxx

SNOW

Finally.

FINE.A.LEE.

It's snowing here!

squeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

 herringbone pattern

fluffy puffy snow!!!

solitary leaf

I just love snow. It's been snowing all day. I will try to take more pictures later, when it stops.


xxx

Where did November go?

Hello everyone! So nice to see you all! Won't you come in and have a cuppa?

 chai tea latte... mmmmm....my favorite

I got out my Christmas mugs last week. It's so fun to drink from these. My tea of choice is chai latte. Such creamy deliciousness. Crazy good!

It's hard to believe that November is over already. I knew it would happen. I knew it would fly by like ... like... well, like something really fast. But as usual I am shocked that it's December 1st. Now that it is, though, we can really get down to Christmas Business.

I've been busy doing some Christmas knitting (pics after Christmas!), making cards to send my Ravelry friends and trying to get more into the mood. The weather here has been so mild it's hard to find Christmas spirit! I heard on the news yesterday that November was the dryest ever this year. Normally we get 82mm of rain, and this year we got 9. NINE. Less than half an inch. And it was sunnier, and warmer than normal too. I'm all for a little warmth in fall and winter, but come on.

C'mon.

How's about a little snow for the holidays?

c'mon.

In the meantime, while you're working on getting some winter weather for us here in The Netherlands, I'll listen to more Christmas music, put up some twinkle lights, light the pine-scented candle and enjoy the season.


Oh, and drink my fantabulous tea.


slurp


aaahhhh.


xxx

'Tis the Season

Ok, folks. Halloween is over. That means we can finally officially begin

I am sure that stores have already begun without me, but I try to wait until November to start my holiday frenzy.

TRY, that is. Doesn’t always work, but I try.

It's also hard to get in the Christmas mood when the weather has been so nice here.

the trees are losing their leaves

We've had temps in the mid-60s (mid-teens Celsius), and tons of sun. Very nice weather for this time of year! And blue blue BLUE skies. Just gorgeous.

Anyways, now begins the preparations for Christmas. Time for list making! I’m a list kind of person. I make lists for everything. The Card List. The Gift (Giving) List. The Wish List (aka The Gift Receiving List). The Christmas Movies To Watch List. The Decorations List (what decorations I’ll put up this year, and where).  The Baking List (a very important list! The list of cookies that I’m going to make!).

All knds of lists. It keeps me organized, and let’s me know what still needs to be done. Because the holidays can get a little overwhelming, can’t they? Lists save my sanity the whole year round, but they are especially helpful at Christmas.

And frankly, my sanity can use all the help it can get!

What’s on your lists?


xxx

Ta-Dah Tuesday

Today the heat wave that we've been having here finally ended. It's cloudy, and much cooler. Much more seasonal. It was nice to have a few warm days, but... yeah, let's get on with autumn! Hopefully I'll get to buy some pumpkins and gourds again this year, and do some decorating. No one here carves jack-o-lanterns, but I have seen plenty of people decorating with mums and pumpkins. Perhaps it's just all the other Americans who live in the area?

I have another ta-da to show off today. Yay!!! I love having finished projects! So here we are.

new socks!

They're my Burning Stripes socks. (Pattern available here on Ravelry.) Yay! I'm so glad I finally finished them. And I love this pattern. I love the striping detail. So neat and genius, because it helps "carry" the contrast color through the next stripe. Awesome, no?

Since this is my first pair of finished socks, they are not without errors. For one thing, they're a little too big. I'd read about "negative ease" and all (making the clothing item smaller in measurement than actually needed, so that the garment stretches to fit). I thought I was doing it alright, but overall, they're too big. And since I didn't do them two-at-a-time, the second sock is even bigger. My tension loosened up a lot, some how. Second mistake there. (Next time I'll do them both at the same time!). Third thing is that I never tried the second one on. Not until I was doing the cuff (almost finished). If I had KNOWN that my tension was so loose on the second one, I could have easily adjusted or just stopped and started over. But that heel is such a pain to do, and the second sock was so close to being done, I didn't have the heart to unravel it all and start over. So I'll live with my mistakes, and learn from them for the next pair.

I also didn't do a very good job with the heel on the second sock.

my holey heel

I'm not sure what happened. I tried picking up extra stitches to close up the holes, but I guess I didn't pick up enough or did it wrong. Oh well. The holes aren't THAT big. I can live with it.

Now that the socks are done, I've moved on to other projects. I'll be showing you more puffs and a scarf in the near future (and probably much more!).  Hopefully you like them all!


xxx

Whaaaaa?

Beef stew is a cool weather meal.  Good for when the wind is howling, and maybe even a chilly rain! I love beef stew.

temperature today and upcoming days

I picked the wrong day to make beef stew for dinner, didn't I? 

All "summer", we had cool weather, clouds, rain... we basically had autumn all summer long! And now, now that autumn is actually here? Look what that funny trickster Mother Nature does! Mid- to high-70s all week long! It's already been this warm since last Saturday or something.

ain't she a hoot?!


xxx

Remnants

I think Hurricane Irene visited us yesterday and last night. Well, what’s left of her anyways. The low pressure system in our area made it really really windy here all day. Doors were slamming all on their own, and the howling coming from the windows made me think it was a blizzard out there instead of just a little rain. Luckily we didn’t have much rain to soak the ground, so I think most trees stayed upright. Further north in the country they had more rain. Bands of it. Just like a hurricane. Hopefully there wasn’t much damage.

After listening to the wind blowing all night long, I can’t imagine what living through an actual hurricane must be like. It wasn’t “scary windy” here, but sometimes I wondered if the things on my balcony were going to stay where they were supposed to. It’s hard to imagine wind so strong that it moves cars. Now that would be scary.

It's been cooler here the past few days. Fall is coming. Is everyone ready? We didn’t have much of a summer here, but I am still looking forward to that chill in the air. Wearing sweaters, scarves, mittens. Seeing my breath. Smelling the dead and dried up leaves on the ground, oh! and crunching through those leaves too! Gosh, I love doing that. Still.

I’m such a child.

Or more like immature?

Well, whatever I am, charmingly child-like or just plain goofy, I am looking forward to the coming weather. I’ve also started thinking of Christmas gifts that can be handmade. And planning how I’m going to decorate this year. I like to change things up each year, rather than do the exact same thing year after year after year. Sometimes I make new decorations (or buy them), sometimes I use the old ones in new ways. I’ve been working on some mittens for decorations since... forever. I can’t even remember when I started them. March, maybe? I will have plenty of them I am sure. I’ll be sure to show them to you when they’re ready. They’re so cute! I just love them, and they’re so quick! Whenever I am between projects, I whip up another mitten.

I’m still working on that little addiction problem.


Do you look forward to the end of summer too?


xxx

{catchy post title here}

I can hardly believe it's September already. August just FLEW by, didn't it? And I didn't even have to go back to school! Why did it go so fast for me, then?

One of life's many (MANY) unanswered questions.

And soon it will be the end of summer. We have had such a lousy summer here that it might not even feel like the seasons are changing much. I heard on the news today that we've had the wettest summer here since 1906. More than 100 years. Wow! No wonder people are complaining. 

Holiday weekend is coming up! Labor Day. Does everyone have big plans? Last BBQ of the season? Family get-togethers? We don't have any plans. It will be just another Monday here. And it probably will be rainy, so we can't even arrange a bbq. Hamburgers inside sound good though!

I wish had something exciting to tell you about, but there haven't been any hot air balloons this week so far. The week isn't over yet though, so I'm optimistic. I keep my camera handy! I know that lately my posts here have been all about knitting. If you're not into that, I'm sorry! I'm trying to wean myself of my obsession/addiction, but it's not easy. Knitting is so much fun...

Other than when I get frustrated with sock heels.

Anyways, if you want me to talk about something specific (or NOT talk about something specific!), just let me know! I'm open to suggestions.

I'll leave you with this.

strikefingerhut, or knitting thimble

Can anyone actually USE this thing? Effectively? Because Lordy Lordy am I struggling with it. I aspire to knit Fair Isle someday.

Some day. After I master this wire yarn guiding thingie.


xxx

Friday again!

Happy Friday everyone! How are things going? Anyone got any interesting plans for the weekend? Oooh! Those famous meteor showers are this week, aren’t they? The ones that are every August? Has anyone been scanning the skies for shooting stars? The moon is full tonight, so it will be a little hard to see anything. Assuming it isn’t cloudy. Like it probably will be here. We’ve had the most miserable summer ever, I think? Frankly, it’s alright by me since I don’t like it too hot, but most folks are pretty disappointed with the weather here. Rainy and cold. It’s more like fall than summer. We’ll hardly experience a change of seasons!  Hopefully this doesn’t mean we’re going to have another bad winter. Yuck. (Again...fine by me!!! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.)

I cast on the socks I mentioned in the previous post the other day. I’ve finished one, and started another.

wow, that’s a weird heel on that there sock

My first sock was not quite a success. It wasn’t a complete disaster since it WILL, in fact, actually fit onto my foot, but it’s just not what I was picturing in my mind.

I always picture fanTAStic successes in my head when I first try new projects. Is that cocky? As in “Of course you’ll be able to do magical things with your talent!” Or is it just ignorance? As in “You’ve never done this pattern, but what could possibly go wrong?” Maybe a bit of both.

Anyways, I was thinking that I would be all fancy with this First Sock Ever, making the toes, heels and cuff a different color, with a white stripe seperating the two colors. But the pattern didn’t call for color changes. I figured I could just figure it out as I went along. Well, the toe went great. Easy as could be. But the heel.... yeah, you can see where it went wrong there. I started the heel flap bit with the color change, but it became too complicated. I had to either wrap and turn on each row, or carry the instep color yarn across the heel. I decided to just let go of the awesome sock that was pictured in my head, and just try to figure out the pattern and how to make a sock with a heel with no holes in it.

My next sock is a different pattern. It still doesn’t call for color changes, but the heel is knit differently (afterthought heel, for those knitters out there), so it will be MUCH easier to change the colors. When it’s done I’ll show it off show it to you.

Oh, on a side note here, I found a temporary solution to tripod problems in my photo studio (aka The Kitchen).

 bringin’ it into focus

Clever, huh? I always have empties hanging around. They do make an attachment for cameras that can be screwed to bottles (just like a lid) for just this sort of thing. I don’t have one of those. I just rest the camera on the bottle top.

Darn handy.


xxx

TGIF

It's Friday.

I don't really have much to say today, I just wanted to give you some flowers.

sunny sunny sunny

Aren't they pretty? Perky? I got them at the farmers market in town on Wednesday while shopping with my friend Marion (Hoi Marion!). I still am amazed at the price of produce/flowers that you can get at these places. €2.50 for 5 stems (trunks would be a better word for them, sheesh those suckers are strong). Bargain, or what? And I love how they shine.

I don't, however, love how they smell. They don't stink, but they kind of smell like... paint? Something. I can't quite put my finger on it. Luckily it's not very strong, unless you're right up in their face.

Or is it: "unless they're right up in your face?"  However you want to say it.

Grammar. *pffft*


I know it's been really really REALLY obnoxiously hot for most of you in the States. I hope you're coping with it ok. Hang in there, the weather will break soon.

In a few months.

And then it's time again for 6 feet of snow! yay!!!


xxx

Summer's Here!!!

We had a couple of hot days on at the beginning of this week. It was in the 90s yesterday. For here that’s extreme heat. Most places don’t have air conditioning, including most stores. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to leave the house those days! It was hot inside too, but when you’re sitting in front of a fan, it’s not so bad.

A cold front came through though (or the high pressure area moved, or some weather-related event), and now it’s much cooler. Today it’s in the high 60s, which is MUCH more comfortable, right? With the front, came the storms. Last night most of the country experienced thunderstorms. Some very big, hail-carrying, damaging storms.

fluffy bubbly clouds

Luckily we were spared the heavy storms here. We heard loads of thunder and saw lots of flashes, and had some rain, but that was it. Kind of glad, really. I don’t like bad storms. Scary!

Spook me out!!!

Flashback to high school...


What has everyone been up to lately? Not much is going on here. This FUNemployment stuff is getting old, though. There are so many jobs listed on the few websites that I search, but they’re for managers, or people with years and years of experience, or people who know Dutch, English AND yet another language (usually French or German). It’s discouraging. Plus I can tell that my Dutch is slipping too, since I don’t use it as often.

tsk tsk tsk.

I’m going to have to find something to get me out of the house on a regular basis soon to ward off the crazies. Maybe volunteer somewhere. I used to volunteer at an animal shelter. Cleaning out the cages and things. Maybe I’ll start doing that again. Or maybe the yarn store that is in my neighborhood needs helpers.

ooooohhh.... working with all that yarn.... ooooohhhhh....hmmm. Might have to look into that.

“Don’t you need someone to knit you a sample from that lucious soft yarn?”


yep, might have to look into that...



xxx

Vacation 2011

We’re on vacaaaaaayshun... we’re on vacaaaaaayshun! Yay!

I wasn’t sure about posting the fact that we’re on a trip in my blog. I mean, I hear/read stories about people who post stuff like that online, and when they get home their entire house has been emptied of it’s contents. But not enough people read my blog right now to worry about it. Plus, I think the ones who read it are not even on the same continent as where I live so it’s even less of a chance of happening. Right? eeks, I hope so!

Vacation is great (it started a little iffy - the airline/airport lost our luggage! But we got it that same night, so no harm, no foul.). It is so great to be back home. I finally get to see Mom’s new floor in person! She took up the decades old carpet in the living room and the same age vinyl in the kitchen and replaced it with a hardwood look-a-like, and it’s fabulous!

Brazilian Cherry

I’m scared of scratching/scuffing it, but it looks great! It makes me want some in my apartment too!

I’m also doing more crafty stuff here. I don’t have a sewing machine at home, so I am taking advantage of the one here and making some quilted coasters (pattern found at MarthaStewart.com, of course!).

quick and easy and fun to make! 

 

There is a quilt/fabric shop in town, and we went there to get some supplies for my crafty endeavors. I was drooling over the fabric, and also their quilting machine. A long arm quilter. Oh. My. Gosh. I wish I could move back to here just so I can get to use this machine. I’m going to try to go back there and take some pictures for my reader(s), and hopefully see it in action!

oooh, I hope that happens. *hyperventilate*

We’ve done some shopping, some cooking on the grill, some visiting... and also watching it rain. It hasn’t really stopped since we got here. And it’s showing no signs of stopping, unfortunately.

Who needs sun, right? It just gives you sunburns and wrinkles.

It’s been the wettest year ever here, I think. In our region anyways. In the mid-south (Texas) they’re having extreme droughts. It’s strange that their neighbors, in the Missisippi Valley, they’re having the worst flooding they’ve had in years. Can’t they just ship a little of their water to Texas, and then everyone would be happy? Hook up a hose or something? Sump pump?

No? Not possible you say? Oh well, I tried.

It’s also very very dry in Europe. Go Go Global Warming.

This weekend a friend is coming up to camp and see the PA Grand Canyon. I hope it’s not too wet to enjoy! It will be a good time anyways, showing someone around my home town and the surrounding area.

In a few days we are traveling to Pittsburgh to visit the city where I lived for 16 years before moving to The Netherlands. It’ll be nice to be back in the Burgh again, and I’ll get to see friends there too. That’s always a good time! Really looking forward to it.

I hope the weather is more friendly where you are. I’ll see you soon!



xxx



NOTE: I still would like to know if you read my blog! If you could leave a comment, that would be fantastic. I’m trying to see if this is worth doing, or if I should just do a letter to my Mom each week. Let me know you stopped by, and what else you’d like to see here!  Thanks!!!

Flooding in January

Last month we had some flooding in the area. All the melting snow, and some rain too made for a very high Maas. We went downtown one afternoon, and I filmed this.

That sound is the water rushing by, and some wind too. It was really windy!

Normally it is MUCH slower and lower. It was fun to see an event like this, but it was also scary. I can't imagine if someone had fallen in! Yikes!

How's everyone doing these days? All is good, hopefully! Nothing much new is going on here. I heard that Punxsutawny Phil did not see his shadow last week. Whoopie! Let's hope his weather forecasting reaches all the way over here. I'm ready for some spring by now, too.

We watched the Superbowl on Sunday. Stayed up until 4:30am just to see the Pittsburgh Steelers lose.

*cancels order for 100 Terrible Towels to hand out to everyone she knows in The Netherlands*

There's always next year, I suppose! They have won it 6 times already too. No harm in letting someone else have it right? I'm a fan, but I don't live and die by the score of their games. Besides, I was too tired to care too much. And the commercials this year weren't fabulous. Am I the only one who thought this? There were a few that were good (Little Darth Vadar), but for the most part... meh. Everyone used to so look forward to the ads. Have they gone downhill, do you think?

It's not like I could do better, though.


xxx

Rough week

I'm having a rough week at work. Well, more than a week really. 2010 was a very difficult year, and it's not looking like this year will be much better. There were more staff changes this week. The last ones made (in the first half of the year) didn't bother me as much as these. Going to work is now depressing.

I'm very happy that I am still employed. But I can't help but wonder for how much longer?  Time will tell.

Anyways, I was working on a new hooking project over the weekend. Looky!

new slippers!

I found a pattern for crocheted adult slippers online (most of them out there are kids sizes) that looked fairly easy. I had some extra yarn laying around (well, actually, I recycled it from The Legwarmer Fiasco), so I gave it a shot. These were done with three strands of yarn for extra warmth. And they are great! I was easily able to size them to fit my huge boat-like feet too. +1 to patterns with easy adaptations! They are actually big enough to wear extra socks with them, for those extra cold nights. NICE!

How's the weather where you are? Ours is improving. It's gotten warmer and is raining, so now the snow is gone. The ice underneath the snow is taking much longer to melt though. Hopefully by this weekend it will all be gone and I won't have to walk like a penguin anymore! And even more hope that we don't have much more snow for the rest of the winter. Just a flake here and there is ok, but no storms. We've had enough, thanks!


Did I just jinx us? eeks...



xxx

1 day and 10 minutes...

(or it was...when I started writing this post. I'm too slow, I guess!)


It's the day before the night before Christmas! And I'm busy busy busy bein' good...

We had a Christmas record growing up that had a song by that name on it. We used to listen to it all the time. I can still sing it now!

Remember I said that our white Christmas might go away? Well, I don't think it's going to. The warmer temps that they were forecasting never came. It's stayed cold. And today it's been snowing almost all day. Buses stopped running, most people are staying in. Heck, even the POLICE are staying in unless called out in an emergency! So it must be bad, huh?

Maybe I should go walk in the beautiful snow while it's almost completely silent in the city? No cars coming and going, no motor scooters whining/whizzing by, no neighborhood yokels testing their fireworks before New Year's Eve. And that is why I love winter and snow. It's magically still and serene.

Makes me kind of glad that I have tomorrow off.

But Ludi has to work, so that kind of worries me. I hope he makes it in safely.

It hasn't really felt like Christmas was coming this week to me.  Maybe because I was off of work last week, and there were some festivities on Friday that kind of made it feel like a goal had been reached. It felt like a normal work week this week. I hope that feeling changes tomorrow, and I get back into The Christmas Spirit.

Stay warm!


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!!