Off to Amsterdam

I am off to Amsterdam for a few days- Meeting up with Cheryl, Barbara and Ashleigh. I hope to return with pictures and a clean soul. Tell you all about it when I return!

Ha!!! fixed the camera problem

With a little help from my husband and a huge expenditure of patients on my part ,I both fixed the camera and found most of the missing pix. While I was in the States my camera battery got really low ,and apparently the date went back to it's original setting- which was in 2004. So I can find the pix stored under a date two and a half years ago, and any new ones are now to be found in the correct place. How clever is that!

To celebrate- a few pix- My new opal stash. I couldn't decide which of the new Opal hundertwasser sock yarns to buy- so I got them all. Plus a couple of others- as long as I was ordering.And, a picture of of Annemarie's RR. I hope you can see the rain drops .

Okay- I was a dork and posted this at the "Neighborhood of Make belive" blog - so now that I have copied it here I have to go delete it there.


Well, here I am again- trying to think of a good excuse for why it has been so long since I have written. I am sure I could come up with something good and even something true, but one day you are all going to realize that I am lazy, procrastinating, scum who has NO (make that zero) affinity for the computer. The computer does so much to make my life better- and I just can't love it.

Anyway.... I am still having a problem with my computer eating photos from my camera ( see- see!!!) So no new pix. You can see my finish on Annemarie's Neighborhood RR by checking out our" Neighborhood of Make Belive" link. I also finished a pair and a half of socks. One a red/orange/yellow Lornas Lace's, and the singelton ,which I finished last night is a pink stripey Treking XXL . I will cast on the mate this evening. As if by saying it I will make it come true:-)

I am thinking hard about what I want to stitch on Carol's RR. I thought I had it figured out and then I bought a new chart which I love, but I am not sure Carol will - so I am still thinking.

Nothing new on the husband front. He is far away and bound to stay that way for quite awhile. Safety is all we ask.

I do have some lovely "to share" kind of news. On Wednesday - Cheryl is coming from Virginia- Yea! She is flying into Amsterdam and I am going to meet her-Yea! We are going to stay in Amsterdam four days-Yea! We are going to meet up with Barbara- Yea! and maybe Ashley ? Reserving my yea for a conformation from Ashley but it definitly merits a yea if she can come. Anyone else? If I didn't ask you ,but you would like to come please invite yourself!!! Cheryl is then going to stay another week at my house, so lots of girl time coming up.

I actually preshopped for food for my boys for next weekend. Turned on the extra freezer and am in the process of filling it with frozen pizzas and chicken wings and mini Magnums- they won't eat any vegetables if they have to fix them themselves, so I am just not going to worry about it. As a continuation of trying to get my life and house in order (which seems to be an epidemic among bloggers the last few months) I went to the dump this morning (again, they are starting to greet me by name) and threw away another load of self recorded video tapes. Anything that no one has watched for more than 10 years- no one is ever going to watch again. I also burned a load of paper and applied nail strengthener to my fingernails.

I am going to start letting you know what I am reading- mainly because I love to know what everyone else is reading and really appreciate it when other people say what they are reading and if they liked it or not. I read a book about every day or two ( see where all my time goes) and I am always looking for a good book or an author who I have never read before. Barbara mentioned that she was reading "Extremely Loud &Incredibly Close" a few days ago, so I promptly ordered it from Amazon . It came this morning and I have started on it. I am also reading two Amsterdam guide books- both "Eyewitness" even though I have been to Amsterdam bunches of times. You can never be too informed. Also on my reading list is " The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield. I am rereading this. I read it for the first time last week ,but I really enjoyed it and so decided to read it again to see if I liked it as well the second time- I will let you know.
The other books I have read in the last week are- "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind. This has just been made into a movie and I always like to read a book before I see the movie. I am going to reread this and I will let you know what I think then. " The Historian" by Eilzabeth Kostova- This is an,eerie vampire story- not horrer- that was unexpected from the discription on the back of the book. " Delectable Mountains" by Earlene Fowler- This is one of her mystery quilting series. Fun ,but not requiring a brain.

Oops- my husband just called from The Congo- gotta go!

Mini Message

The picture is of a wonderful mailart I received this summer from Lilian. The theme was :"Initials" Unfortunatly I am having a software problem and am unable to find any new pictures. They download from my camera and I can see them in one place but not in another. I can't find them to upload them -so for the moment I will have to make do with slightly older pix. To bad because I have made some serious progress on Annemaries's Rr. Which is a good thing because it has to go into the mail on Friday!
I have also done some yarn stashing- Hundertwasser sock yarn from Opal- I couldnt decide what color so I bought all 8.
I have been a bit out of touch as I have a pinched nerve in my back. . My left arm and sometimes my right have "pins and needles" It doesn't hurt but it makes it uncomfortable to do anything. Type, knit, stitch, cook ,clean - you get the idea. I am having some massages but I think it is going to take a while to get rid of.
Some other news here is that Michael's tour in The Congo was extended- first until December and then within a few days again until February or April. He will get a couple of vacations though.
Am off to work on Annemarie's RR .

A new blow dryer

If you are thinking of buying a new blow dryer, go for one of those ion things. I have very dry , loosely curly hair and it always looks a little frizzy. After using my girlfriend ,Terri's, blow dryer in the states. I realised that mine just wasn't doing for me. Her's does not have the ion thing but did have a cold shot thingy and was just better than mine. So off I went shopping, and as long as I was spending that much money on a blow dryer, decided to try one with ion drying- one use and I am a convert- my hair both looks and feels better.

On the "handarbeits" front I have finished one "Lorna's Laces" sock . It turned out really nice . I love the colorway and the yarn and finished sock have a nice soft cushy feel. The second sock is cast on ,but will have to wait and be worked on in "between" times as I am commited to Annemarie's Neighborhood RR at the moment. It is my priority until it is finished and sent on it's way.

On the personal side I have had a tough week. Aside from all the usual business, Patrick got sick and had to be taken to the Dr. , medicated and pandered too. Plus the dog kept throwing up. One night I got up about 16 times between Patrick and Nala- I am not sure why I kept bothering to go back to bed ! Patrick is still home from school but should be able to go back on Monday and I think I figured what was making the dog sick- just as I was about to break down and take her to the Vet , she got better. The only thing I can figure out is that we had been feeding her the last of a bag of dog food from before we went on vacation and perhaps in the heat it had gone rancid. As soon as we started feeding her from a new bag - she quit throwing up. has this ever happened to anyone else? Or their dog? I also had to take the car to get an inspection - everything was fine except I need new brake pads in the front. They had to order them but I assume they will be here in a couple of days. It feels good to know the car has fresh oil and filters etc...
Wednesday evening I had to go to 2 parent teacher evenings. One in each of the kid' schools. Contrary to my intentions but definitly forseeable , I volunteered/ let my self be voted into some office in both classes. Neither of them horrible or a lot of work and just someone volunteering makes the whole evening be over so much quicker. Wednesday wasn't a complete loss though, while the car was at the inspection I had a pedicure. Makes it all worth it!

A vacation tidbit for thoes who are still interested. We did not manage to do some things that we typicly do on every trip- visit the Jelly Belly Factory or Marine World but we did visit the Bay Model - which I loved and the kids found BORING!!! It is a scale model of th eSan Francisco Bay and all of the water ways atatched to it. With it they can study the effects that almost anything might have on the water and it's surroundings. For instance a new bridge or digging a channel deeper. Very cool.
The picture is of my Dad and the kids at the San Francisco Bay Model in Sausalito CA.

The Birthday Boy

Alexander is the one with the sunburned shoulders ;-) The others are from left to right. Danell - a school friend of mine, who just became a step grandma. Alice,my stepdad's,brothers, ex wife who I hadn't seen since I was 9 years old. One of my Mom's best friend's Sharon and her daughter- the sweet Emily.

Sunday update.

Thank you for the "welcome homes" . It is nice to feel like someone noticesd when one has gone "missing"
The daily grind has set in. My big project for today was to vaccume and clean out the car. I thought I might not be able to do it as it has been raining (in August!) off and on since yesterday afternoon, but there was a break and I trundled my new "dustsucker" outside and cleaned up the car. It feels good to have it done- I have to admitt that:
1. The car is 2 years old and has never been vaccumed before.
2. It has to go in for an overdue inspection on Wednesday.
3. Michael and the kids took the two back seats out to take stuff to the dump - so it was easy to do the back.

Just so that no one gets the mistaken idea that I am a clever and tidy person who ,like my neighbor, cleans her car every weekend! It always impresses me but I just can't get into it.

I have rearranged my teaching schedual to better fit my needs and my least favorite student quit- I was obviously his least favorite tutor- so I am pretty happy with that situation.

We don't know when Michael will be home from the Congo so I am not thrillled with that situation ,but I can't change it so I am doing my best to ignore it.

I am going to try and write a little bit about our vacation in each of my mails for a while as I didn't manage to write much while I was away. Alexander turned 16 on July 3rd and my Mom threw a pool party for him. It was a great day with cake, swimming, presents, and a BBQ. These partys are always fun and interesting as my Mom invites peple that we havent seen in a while. I have a picture of Alexander blowing out his candles for this post but I can't find it so I am going to post this with picture to follow!

I am still alive

Hi all. Yes, I still alive. I am not quite back with the program ,but almost. I have my dog back and Michael was here and is gone again. School has started and I am working again. I am stitching and knitting and not cleaning enough as usual. I hope to get back to reading writing and commenting on blogs soon. I hope everyone had and is having a lovely sunny summer.

Hello from California

Well... we're here. No photos because I haven't set up my camera on one of the computers here ,but I hope to manage at some point. This morning I managed a good walk for the first time. Very positive. Not only do I need to walk for the health benifits, but I think it helps get over the jet lag as well. My dad lives one block over from the San Francisco Bay and there is a walking path along the water. You could not ask for a lovelier view to walk to.
Our trip here was rich in adventure as our trips tend to be. The flight (once we got on it) was good. We had great seats and it was the quickest flight from Frankfurt to CA that we have ever had. Only ten and a half hours. I don't know if our plane had turbo or the pilot thought he was Mario Andretti , but it was very pleasant. Our troubles, though, started at Munster airport as we were trying to board the first plane of the day and it was discovered that Alexander's passport had expired in March. This is one of those moments where one wonders what planet one has been living on for the last six months- certainly not this one! How could I have missed this? I honestly have no idea. The load master started to unload our bags and the woman who was supervising the bording , started making one phone call after the other in an attempt to find out if we would be allowed into the US with an expired US passport. The answer (at the last minute) was yes, and we were ushered onto the plane to the voice of the pilot explaining to everyone that we had lost our place in the take off line up because some people (us) where trying to travel on the wrong documents and the removal of our luggage was taking a few minutes, and as soon as it was off,we would proceed to take off. . He kindly explained this in two languages so that every one would know that we were at fault for any delays.
The plane actually took off only about three minutes late and one of the flight crew kindly (truly)informed me that in spite of what the pilot had said our luggage was still on the plane.

The rest of our trip was uneventful untill we reached CA- exept that we had to explain the passport situation to about twenty people, but they were all very nice about it. When we got to CA we managed to get ahold of a wrong suicase- which wasn't so bad for us ,but apparently the bag we had, had already been missing for three days and some poor woman was probably going nuts wondering where it was. The story of the exchange of bags is a huge blog in itself ,but I will leave you with the fact that the bags did get exchanged, although my bag had been "gone through" .

I then proceeded to spend HOURS on the phone trying to figure out how I am going to get Alexander back to Germany. I originaly thought- no problem. I will go fill out the form and renew his passport- no big deal, but no- because he is over 14 but not yet 18 he is in a passport no mans land. The requirements for a passport for a child of this age are a little wishy-washy. Partcularly if he was born and lives in a forign country. Also they kept saying things to me like :You just need his birth certificate and the fathers signature. There is no "just" about this, his birth certificate is in Germany and in German- they want a noterised English copy, and his father is in the Congo and not coming to Californina any time soon.
The fact that had I been aware that his passport was expired , I would have gotten him a new one before ever leaving Germany and as a consequence of this I left my home with out all of the proper documents to get a new one seems to escape everyone (in an official capacity)I talk to.

We have now decided to forget the American passport untill we are back in Germany and can apply the normal way, and are going with the German consulate who, while still wanting documentation, are willing to give him a one time entry document that will get him home.
For this I need his birth certificate, which my neighbour kindly went into my house and retrived and then put in the mail to me, a noterised letter from my husband and a noterised copy of his passport. and a couple of pix of Alexander. The documents from my husband are much easier to get to the German consulate than to the American State department because he can have them sent directly, through the diplomatic way , from Kinchase to San Francisco. Even there ,it is not his regular passport but a diplomatic temp that he is traveling on that I hope they will accept.
Is this complicated? Yes. Is it making me crazy? Yes. is it my own fault? Yes- but could sombody help me out herre just a little? I am supposed to be on vacation!!

All you ever wanted to know about packing a suitcase ,but were afraid to ask.

Here are my finishe 1776 socks- I think I finished them on Thursday , but the camera was one of the few things I had actually put in the suitcase. I had to go dig it out from under the pile of stuff I had dumped on top of it. Am quite hppy with these as they came out close to identical. I need to remember to put the camera back in the suitcase now :-)
I am madly washing clothes, running the dish washer and trying to figure out what time to take my suitcases to the airport. Early check in is from 6-9 pm. but the F1 race is fron 7- 9. Pretty much however I time it, I am going to miss most of the race. I do want to do it though, it saves a lot of time in the morning, as boarding for our first flight is 5:30 am. I still have to finish packing , I just keep winging things in the suitcase and I guess when it is full I will stop.
Okay , I have to stop , I have jumped up and down about 14 times. I still have way too much to do :-0 My next post will be from CA.
Everyone enjoy your summer!

Not a good blogger

I am afraid I am not a very good blogger at the moment. The boys and I are leaving for California on Monday and I am trying to get ready. It is not really that much ,but I am feeling a bit overwelmed. I finally have most of my shopping bits done but Nala still needs to be brought to my girlfriends, the kids have their last day of school and I have a friend and her son coming for the day on Sunday.
I also need to clean things out of the fridge and put things into the suitcases. I put a bathing suit in one suitcase and then set it near my closet in the hope that the rest of my clothing would migrate to the suitcase in the night. Just in case you are considering trying this- it doesn't work.

Alexander managed to get sick on Monday evening and I had to call the Dr. at 10:30 pm and he stayed until 12:30am-it was quite exiting- not. Threw my my timing for the week of though. I usualy work at the library on tuesday but as I didn't want to leave him home alone- I traded woith someone for this morning. Which means that I should be getting ready to go instead of messing about with my computer:-) so here I go.

More birthday presents!

Yesterday , I received yet another birthday present- I am such a lucky girl. Cheryl sent me the Red Velvet Sampler chart which I have been drooling over and some resd white and blue sock yarn that I couldn't find around here. Isn't she a sweet heart? I think so. Thank you so much Cheryl. The floweres are not a birthday present but an "end of the school year" gift from one of my English students. Sweet.
We have had a slight break in the hot weather- this is certainly due to me having purchased two fans yesterday. I even put them together myself, breaking a nail in the process , but never the less feeling good about providing my kids with some cool air. It is still very warm and we had thunder storms all night so it is very humid today. But, I always sleep well when it thunders and rains .
It is a holiday in Germany today so I slept late and am now lounging around in my pjs- must pull myself together and take my silly dog for a walk.

More Birthday Stuff

Here are some wonderful bits I received from Annemarie. I have actually had them for a couple of days but thought they deserved their own post. I didn't have any of this , so not only was it kind and sweet of Annemarie to send me these birthday surprises (which it was and she is ) but she was inspired in her choices. Thank you sooooo much, Annemarie and Jula and Pelle.

Two more things I can cross off my list.

My finished square on Barbara's NRR and a pair of socks. The RR is based on a chart by Linda Meyers called "Willow Hill Farm". I changed a bit ,left out a lot and added the bunny who is of my own design. I was able to "design" my own bunny only after seeing one that Annemarie came up with, and then thinking really hard about what it looked like. There are probably a thousand charts with bunnies just like this out there - but i don't own one, I discovered after paging through about a meter of cross stitch charts, books and mags. I like it though and hope Barbara does as well.

The socks are my "Starbuck's" socks as that is where I cast them on.They are made out of Austerman Step with aloe vera and chestnut.They are really soft . I was worried that the colorway would be totally ugly but ended up liking it. They are very obviously fraternal ,but as I was worried about them being ugly anyway I wasn't too worried about that. Maybe the next ones will match.

5 things

Nabbed this from Barbara's blog
5 things that are in my fridge:
yellow American mustard,
sweet Bavarian mustard,
a jar of chocolate orange spread from Barcelona that soundd better than it tasted,
kohlrabi,
a bottle of Berentzen's that belongs to Cheryl

5 items in my closet:
a 22 year old, pink, sweatshirt that says "big weenie cafe" ,
my high school diploma,
a child sized violin that both my mother and my grandmother learned to play on,
a black knit dress,
my life jacket

5 items in my purse/handbag/ tote:
I am using a small purse right now and carrying a tote extra eveywhere I go- purse first:
prescription sunglasses,
German driver's licence,
three Clinique lipsticks,
pink cell phone,
a coupon for a chinese restaurantin San Rafael California from last year- used,
an Ikea card

In my tote:
knitting project,
stitching project,
scissors,
book,
bottle of water,

5 items in my car:
bags of shoes for the old clothing collection,
a small pillow liberated from a large airline
a blanket liberated from a different large airline, but from business class-quite a nice one,
a cool pack from when Patrick hurt his knee
pink, blue tooth head set that matches cell phone

5 people to tag:
Any one who likes this kind of silly, time waster- like me:-)

Sorry

Sorry if I haven't commented on your blog lately- Blogger, my computer, the stars, all seem to have been playing against me . I hope things have taken a turn for the better.
I think this will be a short entry- I should be getting ready to leave for my hair appointment-by this I mean I should at least put on clothes and brush my hair. People here are quite critical of others who run around in their pjs .
I did not get as much done over the four day weekend as I had hoped- do these things ever work out the way one hopes?
Oops- the post man just showed up with yet another package from Amazon, with yet another sock knitting book. Just happily combining my hobbies.
Okay , while Blogger was uploading my fotos , I managed to get dressed and brush my teeth and hair. Each with the proper brush! I even managed to find a top and bra in the same colors. Important because I have no shoulders and people are often treated to the sight of my bra straps. If they are the same color as my shirt I can pretend it is part of my look- right? Okay maybe not.
The scissor fob for is for an exchange and has been sent to Australia- I haven't heard that it has arrived yet ,but I don't think the recipient reads my blog. The socks are for Moni and I mailed them on Wednesday- they didn't have to go very far and should have gotten to her on Thursday ,but I haven't heard from her either. She should definitly get them today, but I don't think she reads my blog either:-( I was able to cross one project off my list as it was a replacement for someone else and they are going to do it themselves. In this way my list is actually getting things crossed off of it. I was going to say shorter, but I keep adding things to the bottom.

I would also have more time for stitching if a certain person (can you guess who?) wouldn't break ketchup bottles in the family room and cause his mother to spend two days cleaning the sofa, carpet, walls etc.. because we keep finding more drips and splats. Maybe the kids could just stop eating atogether- think of how much time that would save- shopping, cooking, ceaning up after- no, it's not going to work. Ah well., off to the hairdresser.

Michael has made it to the Southern Hemesphere

First of all - as you can see I am trying a different font and color. I must be feeling creative today.
The picture is one of my favorites- My three "men" taken Christmas 2004. I use it on my monitor as wallpaper and I never get tired of seeing it.
On Thusday, the first, Michael and his boxes and bags were picked up by car and driven to Brussels. The next morning he flew from Brussels to Kinshasa, which is the capitol of the Congo- the bigger of the two that is on the right when you look at the map. He will be there for three months ,helping the Congalese goverment organise and set up an IT system. I have talked to him twice and he seems quite stunned by the whole thing.
We are medium well traveled people ,but he says it is like nothing he has ever seen or experienced before. The first thing he said was : It is hot and dark. The heat was expected but the fact that he is right below the equator and the time of year, mean that it is pitch dark by 6:30 pm . The other thing is that he (we) have never experienced people that poor before, and the amazing contrast of people who either have nothing or live in mini palaces and drive Rolls Royces. The other thing that he noticed right away is that everyone seemed happy and friendly. A lesson for us in that it is proof that wealth and happyness are not the same.
My four day weekend is not going quite as I planned as I have ended up driving the boys to the movies, going bowling with them and promising Alexander a movie tomorrow. I have also done tons of laundry-it feels kind of wierd to be washing Michael,s clothes, ironing his shirts etc.. and knowing he won't need them for three months- and also that I won't have any laundry from him in that time.
It makes the three months seem very real.
I did manage to walk both yesterday and today and to get some things on my "finish" list finished or at least worked on. I will save all of that for tomorrow or maybe I will wait untill Wednesday and give a report about all that I have finished in the last week. I would like to be able to repot then that all seven things on my list are finished and things in the mail etc... but I would be content if half were finished. LOL
I just remembered I wanted to say something more about the peacock. Yes, he is very loud- but I actually like it. I am not a peson who sleeps well and I enjoy the screaming peacock day and night- makes me feel I am not alone. Also- I said "our" peacock but he doesn't belong to us , but is part of the farm we live on. Right now we just have one peacock and one peahen but have at different times had up to five.

The promised peacock picture

Here is the long promised picture of our peacock. Every time I went out to take one, either he would disapear or it would start to rain. I think the only times it has not rained in the last 4 days is when I was at work or while I was in the shower. Anyway- he is lovely , isn't he!!
Michael is leaving for Brussels tomorrow and then on to The Congo on Friday morning We went to Munster this morning to have breakfast and do a bit of shopping. We were finished eating and moving on to the shopping bit when my phone rang and it was (surprise) Patrick's school. He had hurt his knee and needed to be picked up. Are cell phones a blessing or a curse?

Know he is laying on the couch with his knee iced and up ,but it doesn't look too bad and I assume that he will be okay buy tomorrow- or this afternoon if anyone calls with a good idea -like going to the swimming pool.
We have another four day weekend coming up and I plan to finish Barbara's RR- knit a sock, stitch and finish a scissor fob for an exchange and work on the newly started gift sampler. let's see what I say to this ambitious list next Wednesday.

Drying floss

I rinsed this blue floss for a sampler I am working on. My poor family is so used to my strange goings on that they did not even think twice about floss drying in the middle of the living room. Now that it is dry , I have it hanging over light fixture- thay haven't let that bother them either.
I had a lovely birthday - thank you Barbara, Annemarie and Dianne for the birthday wishes.
I had a whole houseful of wonderful friends as guests from Saturday to Sunday. I knew that some friends were coming , but Anja and Roman and the kids showed up and surprised me. Which is the kind of surpise I love. We BBQed and drank wine and beer, and the kids ran in and out of the house, even when it was raining and after dark. At midnight everyone seemed to disapear. Then the lights went out and they came back into the dinning room with a cake with 42 candles, sparklers and presents- totaly fun. I received a book , a necklace, a ring, a vase, flowers, nordic walking poles, a poem and a picture from my boys, and lots of lovely bits of colored, cut and pasted paper from the little girls. In the morning we all had breakfast together before everyone left- today is not a holiday here :-) We spent the day lounging around and watching the Formula One race. What I didn't do was stitch or knit as I was tired and afraid of mistakes.
I have to work today , but now that I have given notice, I can count the days- not just until vacation, but also until my last work day!

Birthday traditions in Germany

Tomorrow is my birthday ( 42 if you want to know) . In Germany, a day with rules, like any other here in his country. The first is that it is the birthday persons responsibility to celebrate. Birthday partys are seldom given for someone. As the birthday girl , I must shop and clean and cook and bake in preperation for any amount of people. This I have accomplished with the help of my DH over the last two days.
The other rule is that it is considered unlucky to celebrate or even wish someone "happy birthday" before their actual birthday. This often complcates the situation- you are expected to provide for everyone -sometimes on a Wednesday evening! There is a small saving grace to this rule. It doesn't help you on Wednesday ,but in years where your birthday falls on a Sunday , you may cheat by inviting people on Saturday and then "celebrating" after midnight. This is what we are doing tonight.
A few out of town friends and the neighbors are coming by and Michael will BBQ (never let a little rain stop you) . To go with the BBQ I have baked a couple of loaves of bread and some brownies. I am also planning some American style coleslaw and an insalata Caprise. If I can get ahold of some nice strawberries I might make a shortcake as well.
To sweeten the situation a bit (ha ha) Patrick got sick Thursday evening and we ae still not sure if he has Mono or "just" tonsillitis. Which ever it is he is taking antibiotics and is no longer contagious - he is also feeling much better , if sleepy.
I have already received some lovely birthday presents and cards, My gemini exchange , bracelets, earings, and a darling inlay wooden box from my Mom , a card and money from my Dad and a card, and money from my in-laws. The money from my in-laws was almost exactly the amount that I needed to pay for the stack of books and cd's that have been piling up in my shopping cart at Amazon for the last month or so, and so I hopped over there and hit the
" one click order" and will have something to look forward to in the next week.
Tomorrow on my actual birthday - I am planning on watching the Formula One race in Monaco and relaxing with my stitching and knitting- we'll see!

Our peacock has been released from his cage, as some entity decided that the bird flu danger in our area is more or less over, and he is quite happy to be out and about. Once I am showered and dressed I am going to go out and see if I can get a picture of him with his tail open, to post here as a treat for all who are patient and kind enough to read my blog.