Sunday, November 23, 2008

What a weekend....

I had the best, yes the best weekend and I never left the house. That's what really made it the best. I stitched most of Friday...got up periodically and started thinking about cleaning, but didn't get on that until Saturday and then I stormed the kitchen and began the process of cleaning out, throwing away, and what a great job I did if I do say so myself. Now, of course, it's too clean to cook in...here at Thanksgiving that's not a good thing. But I suppose I'll look at it just a little longer, until I get hungry and then I don't give a darn what it looks like food will be made. I allowed myself to stitch on anything I wanted, Christmas Quaker sampler, since I have stitched so many of my Christmas gifts. I was going gung-ho until I made a mistake. It took me an hour to find it and then I didn't feel like tearing all of it out to correct so now I'm adjusting and that I hate. So I moved on to Emmanuel by Shepherd's Bush and I'm loving that except I hate, hate, hate the lettering they now do so I've had to redo the lettering which I'm not loving either. But I did it, wished I had centered the redo but can stand the way it looks anyway so it's staying the way it is. The weather is frightful down here....cold, cold, cold...today when I got into the car to go to church at 7:30 a.m. it was 28 degrees...brrrr. Last night I fell asleep (as usual) on the sofa watching T.V. When I am stitching I have only one light on (my stitching light) to begin with and when I am tired I usually turn it off (as I did last night) so the only thing that was still on in the house was the t.v. which I fell asleep watching. I was awakened at 2:30 a.m. by a pounding on my door, which frankly I thought was loud but was willing to ignore since I didn't want any visitors...but then the flashlight came out and lit up my living room so I could no longer ignore it. Now let me tell you I had not changed my P.J.'s for 2 days, my hair was un unGodly mess and I wasn't smelling too sweet either so to answer my door...well for me it wasn't an option. However, after getting off the sofa to scream at the ignoramius shining the light in the window I did notice a police car sitting there so I felt perhaps I should go see what the big deal was. Well it was our local Police department, vigilant for once, alerting me that one of the doors leading to the undercroft of my building was handing by a thread...and they were concerned that homeless would go crawling in. But he assured me he had checked underneath. First of all, I knew the door was hanging and have John coming on Monday to fix it. Homeless, in Ocean City...I don't think so. O.K., we may have a couple of people who wander all night but they aren't hanging out on my street trust me. This they saw but the hotel door wide open in April (because the idiot that painted them forgot about them and went home leaving them propped open all night)..they never saw. Go figure! So at 2:30 a.m. I took one last look at my cleaned kitchen and went to bed...the rest of the night was uneventful. Mary couldn't wait to call me this morning (Brian saw them there last night) to see why the police were at my house. Then she tells me Brian saw them and when I said, "Well thank him for coming down to see if I was alright," she said, "Well, he was afraid they were there for him since he had a couple of drinks after work before he drove home." Now that's caring for your mother in law isn't it? I can see now if one of us is going to be thrown under the bus...I think it will be me! And this close to Christmas....he should know better. I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine who buys tons of gift cards for everyone every year and she sent me a list of stores to be leary of since they are still selling the cards but are going to be closing in January. So if you purchase gift cards...check to make sure your stores are still going to be in business...this did happen to me once. I got a gift card which was purchased in October as a gift only to find out the restaurant went out of business in November. I happen to mention this while I was in class (I went back to college in my 40's) with a student who mentioned that her in-laws owned a restaurant (and is that amazing because this was the restaurant). When she heard what happened she said to bring the card to the restaurant she and her husband just opened and she would honor it. Which of course I didn't do because how fair would that be to them. I didn't pay for the card...it was a gift so I just threw it away...but now I'm wiser I hope. I also don't buy cards very much but you can bet I won't be buying any now. Something is not right with businesses selling cards knowing they are going out of business. I think we can all agree on that. Well it's 3:55 and I need to get home to check on my clean kitchen. I can hardly wait to see it....now I have to get my dining room and living room to join it in cleanliness. In case I don't get back to the blog before Thursday...have a wonderful and safe holiday. Enjoy your families, food, and stitch just a little if you find the time.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The sun came out....

Hello Sun...where have you been...it finally stopped raining and I hate to complain since I'm sure those in California would like to see a little rain, however, I can't remember when we've had so much rain over so many days...I was thinking of ordering a boat to commute...although I could possible borrow Vernon's...no probably he wouldn't lend it to me so I'd have to purchase one....typical I'd have to have a boat which I would have to row to work just as the cost of gas is going down. I couldn't believe it the other day when I had oil delivered and the cost was around $300 and I'm telling you I haven't paid under $1300 in the longest time...so I'm excited. I've been stitching up a storm here getting prepared for Christmas...I've never felt so ready in the stitching department...other than that I've purchased one gift so far...but I'm getting the computer ready to do some hard core shopping on the internet....saves my poor feet who are so sick of hauling my fat behind around. We had a great "Stitch 'N Bitch" meeting last weekend with a new layout for sitting since we redid the shop this year and got rid of our big table....it worked out perfectly. We had two new members join us...Linda Wimbrow and her daughter Candi. They drive up from Chincoteague. Linda and Candi have been friends of ours for some time. Linda has supplied us with many samples for our store over the last couple of years and now Candi is following in her footsteps. They are fast stitchers too...they pick up the fabric one Saturday and the following Saturday they are back with the models. Now these are not models I've commissioned...they just bring in their pieces and graciously allow us to display them for apparently as long as we'd like since we still have some of Linda's that she brought in last year. It certainly takes the pressure off of me to produce, thank God since I haven't managed to frame anything in months. I love to do the stitching but I fall short after that. Kay was missing from the meeting along with Pat..but we know Pat just slept through it however, Kay ended up at the emergency room after falling out of her clogs (perhaps I have that wrong) and then returned home to suffer in silence. We hope you are feeling better Kay. Hedy was also absent after having surgery (wemissed you too Hedy)...but hopefully they will both be back in time for our Christmas party next month at Fagers. O.K., now I've talked about the shop let's get down to the important stuff...T.V. O.K...did you catch last week's Atlanta Housewives? God, is that Kim a red hot mess or what. First, if I was as ignorant as she is I certainly wouldn't go on national T.V. and let the entire world know I was stupid. When they were in the Mexican restaurant and they used the Mortar and Pestle to prepare the guacamole for the chips and she actually said out loud..."they are using rocks to prepare the food and that's unsanitary"...I mean people where the hell has she been living under a rock? Oops..perhaps that is the answer. The speculation over who Big Papa is goes on, however, Ellen S. my private eye in N.Y., emailed me the web address showing a picture of who he supposedly is...and he's with his wife who is so classy it's hard to believe he would want Kim as well...they are as different as night and day and let's face it...if you are indeed a multi millionaire (which he is) would you want this phony, stupid woman on the side...crap...her "VaJayJay" must be made of gold because that's the only reason anyone would want her and her fake hair, her fake personality and her singing voice...well hearing her sing was the reward for watching this show...my God, I don't think she even came close to the right notes not once...and watching the producer of the album was priceless. I'm sure Big Papa had to pay extra for that day in the studio...as well he should have. This is one classless jackass, people...let there be no doubt in anyone's mind. And does she think highly of herself. The more I see NeNe, the more I don't mind her anymore. I could have died when Anderson Cooper was asked what he watched and he mentioned NeNe and when the person who asked didn't know who NeNe was he began to fill them in...well I just about died...even I wouldn't admit on National T.V. that I watched this crap. I just tell you here because we're all friends. Back to NeNe I think we all know she's loud and semi-obnoxious because her childhood was apparently a nightmare, the man she was told her father really wanted little to do with her and as it turns out after the DNA he isn't her father at all and now with her mother dead she may never find the truth. So I'm giving NeNe a walk on this one. Sherri though, will not get the same break. She is what is wrong with people that come into money. Instead of being grateful, she is a smart ass who thinks she's God's gift to the universe. I was thrilled when she got a little kick in the ass last week. I mean really people...if brains were dynamite she wouldn't have enough to blow herself up. She decides she wants to come out with her fashion line in 2 weeks and she hasn't finished the designs yet let alone had them cut, or sewn. And then the person she hired did a crappy job and suddenly she has nothing to show so she has her sketches blown up and shows them? Is she kidding...has she heard about fashion week...it just wouldn't be the same if they put blown up sketches on the walk way. Honestly this woman had such a high opinion of herself, which as you can see I don't share...and to hold her husband up for millions of dollars...honestly...honey..get a JOB like the rest of us and stop making a fool of yourself. O.K., those are the worst 2 on that show so I'm going to stop here. If you haven't seen it...please tune in on Tuesday evenings on BRAVO...it is such a "hoot". Survivor hasn't given me insight into who is going to be the clear winner yet...I have one person I can't stand...Randy...and it's only time which will give him his just reward. Honesly it's like these people never saw another Survivor. We all know the one that sits there and boasts about how smart they are and how they are running the entire game are always the ones that go...so Randy...Goodbye...didn't like ya so I'm not sorry you are gone. I do wonder at the choices they make on who to kick off. But now that they are out of the team mode...it won't make much difference. Only the strong can survive....good luck! Amazing Race my last addition..(well the last that I'm going to admit to) hasn't shown who the real winners are. I disliked the divorced couple at first but when they helped another team I decided to rethink their position. So right now they are all neck and neck as far as I'm concerned. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I'm back again....




My final retreat (mini this time) is over and I'm back in the office, in the shop, doing the job I'm suppose to be doing...but what fun I've had for the past 3 weeks...stitching, stitching, stitching. When C.A. Wells cancelled the class she was suppose to be teaching this past weekend due to "the expense of her time", the stitchers decided they still wanted to get together..so October 31-Nov. 2nd became our First Annual C.A. Wells Memorial Weekend Retreat. While I hosted Debbie L., Kay Fletcher played hostess to Kathy R., Jennifer H., Stacy S., Jackie J. and Mary L. On Saturday we joined together to stitch, discuss our cancelled class, hold a memorial service for C.A. Wells and we had a ball. And I have to tell you it's the first time during an event where I actually sat down and stitched. And I stitched each day until about 6:30 or 7:00 pm. (starting around 9:00 a.m.)...oh, Lordy I had a great weekend. And the weather...oh, my God...the weather was perfect. As you can see in the pictures we are not wearing jackets, a couple of us had on short sleeved shirts..in fact the sun was shining and I swear it got up to at least 70 degrees...gorgeous..the perfect day for our memorial. We stitched all afternoon and then decided to have our little memorial service where we gathered around the tombstones and gave our thoughts about C.A. Wells. Great weekend, great friends...can't wait to do it again next year, when we'll hold another memorial to C.A. Wells. So C.A. you may not have been here, but you gave us a lot of laughs anyway. Ladies, thanks for being here with me...I had fun.