Break Time

Clearly, my desire to keep my blog updated with stitching is not the highest priority lately. It seems the winds of change are blowing for me and the blog seems to be a victim. I’m stitching and decided to make getting out to a few of the stitch groups a higher priority and it’s been fun to get out and sit and chat and see what everyone else is working on. I have my Google Reader keeping me updated with your entries and I’ll say hello through there…which by the way is an awesome diversion for ADD at work Anyway…I’m casting my blog aside for a bit. I’ll post occasionally with my Quaker Gone Tropic progress…so hopefully you might keep me in your Reader if you’re so inclined. Cheers until next time.

Vacation

I’m on my holiday. Except this year, unfortunately smack dab in the middle of the whole thing I have to resurface for work tomorrow and Thursday. Considering I am still able to take a prime week off for the most part after only being in this place a little over a year, I’m still ahead of the game.
So yesterday, I did a little Antique Road Trip and if it wasn’t for living in one of the most beautiful areas of the country, the trip would have been disappointing in the way of Antique Shops.

This is home to me. Baled hay, mountains and blue skies. The Blue Ridge Mountains in a true sense of its name.
Back to the Antique Road Trip. It must be me. I’ve decided that anything that is showing up in shops from the 70’s is just Flea Market junk and not a true Antique Shop. One has to explore these places in order to come to the conclusion that it’s not worth the two hour drive. I took back roads home yesterday which took me below the Skyline Drive of which many of you have driven on at time or another in your life. It’s just as pretty below as it is above and I find myself meandering through sleepy little towns with some spectacular homes and old bank barns. Towns with names like Sperryville, Syria or Scrabble. I was pretty Antiqued out after 4 not so great shops. I stopped at the Plow and Hearth Store and was totally disappointed. Which is when I hopped on the back roads and headed toward home. Then I realized I was heading toward the belly of the beast with afternoon traffic and the icing would be some brainiac in the way of a an Engineer talked the State of Virginia into putting Traffic Circles in the worst area of concentrated rush hour traffic [a.k.a. Rotaries if you hail from the great Bay State of which I'm proud to be a "wicked Masshole"-where you master the art of Rotaries-here in VA will be risking life and limb I'm afraid].  Not a good concept IMHO. So I took a left instead of a right to avoid the insanity (I’m on vacation!) and found myself here:

Oh look! Johnny doing his all time favorite activity: snarfing on grass. Unlike the two in the front who are content and happy (in spite of goofy fly masks-not to judge- but they have girly eyes painted on the front of them on top of it) to be enjoying an afternoon in the sun. Johnny mastered the art of shirking off his  fly mask and I gave up wasting serious precious barn time searching 5 acres every time I thought I would do him the favor. Plus, it’s an owner preference thing…the wild horses out West or on Assateague Island don’t get them and they do just fine.  We do the Predator routine anyway. It’s not like he’s going crazy without a mask as some horses can if it’s bad enough. As usual I digress.
About 10 years ago, I came across a list of the top 100 Best Classic Novels. What a great way to discover some most incredible talent that otherwise my life would not be colored with. Another blog entry for another time. The focus this time is on the fact that at 3AM this morning insomnia had me up and reading.  I found The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath at Costco a few weeks ago which happens to be on my particular list. A little dark but some incredible writing. Were I to suggest a classic for a summer read? Off the top of my head, Willa Cather’s Oh Pioneer. I loved it.

I’m off to enjoy another fantastic NoVA weather day. It has truly been a great summer weather-wise and this day will be no exception. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy your day!

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corp

Happy Birthday to US…as in U.S. What a great holiday and it brings back memories of my days as a Fifer in a local Militia group in Massachusetts. I could play a mean fife and occasionally will pull my treasured Ferrari or Rosewood out and trill out a Yankee Doodle or British Grenadiers after all these years. Those uniforms were so stinkin’ hot and ours were made of mostly cotton. The poor guys who wore the British wool coats. Ugh! In July yet! Anyway it was fun and did a slew of reenactments throughout the Northeast between 1975 and 1977 and so many parades, we actually managed to do 4 parades on 07/04/1976. At least I know I have a job at Williamsburg if I ever find myself out of work.
So as I predicted, all 3 or 4 of you entered my drawing and in spite of the endless amounts of names, I tossed each one on a separate piece of paper, then into a bowl and Colleen from Canada is my PIF person. So Colleen, I’ll drop you an e-mail to get the necessary info in order for me to square away a little something off to you. Not a bad way for an American to take the liberty of extending to a neighbor a small pursuit of happiness, aye?
Bad. I know.

Oh This is Too Funny!

Do yourself a favor and read this perfect letter…and be prepared to snicker and crack up if you relate like I did.

25K almost and having fun

I’m feeling generous. So…in honor of hitting close to my 25-thousandth visitor today, (okay…so it will be more like 24.5, but hey…I may not be feeling so forthcoming in about a month) and I would like to pay the kindness of your visits forward with a little bobble of my own making (could be stitchy or it could be from my beadwork) and/or perhaps some fun in the way of whatever strikes my fancy that is unused/new condition from my stash or from the LNS  (oh wait…I don’t have a LNS anymore) Over the River and through the woods Needle Shop then.
Leave a comment if you so desire and I’ll random pick from all 3 or so of the comments to this posting and draw a name on the 4th of July because I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy…(well not in it’s true sense) but I was born on the 8th of July and well…I just wanna fun…ohhh-ohhh girls just wanna have fu-uuh-n. Girls just wanna have fun.
Insert sound of crickets chirping.
What? You don’t hear two very significant songs going through your head as I ramble on and try to be witty and creative?!
I seriously need to cut back on the double shot coffee in the morning.
All Righty then. Hopefully my creativity will show better in the giveaway.