In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

I’m in Florida. That sounds good, but I think I’ve been outside for a grand total of half an hour since I arrived at 2 p.m. on Sunday. So don't get jealous.

I got up at 4 a.m. and forced the Hubster to drive me to the airport, leaving the house at 4:45 a.m. to take me to the airport. Flight was at 7:15. I connected in Philadelphia (no plane change, just a layover), but didn’t have to switch planes. The good news is that I was able to get off the plane to use a bathroom that doesn’t move and get a pretzel (yum!). The bad news is that while I was in the airport, the fire alarm went off. It was LOUD.

But, it was nothing, so we all just stood around waiting for it to be turned off. I was the first one back on the plane (only person who came from Pittsburgh headed for Fort Meyers) and the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Before I left town, there was a flurry of activity. On Friday, my mom and I executed Christmas Tree Acquisition: 2008, getting trees for my house and hers. After we got her tree set up and in the stand, my tree was dumped in my front yard and mom scurried back home to get ready for a holiday party she was attending with my dad.

I figured I was already outside, covered in needles and smelling pine-ey. I had brought the four tubs of Christmas stuff down from the attic earlier in the day (good grief, were the big ones ever heavy!), so I just started putting up the outside lights.

It was 20 degrees outside and as long as I kept moving it wasn’t too bad. I got all the outside lights up and got Santa up on the roof of the front porch before turning into a frozen banana. Inside tree was put up when the Hubster got home. I’ll take pictures and post once I get back to the ‘Burgh, but basically? Looks the same as last year!

I threw up a few of the easy/favorite decorations. I have two “new” snowmen.



This guy was purchased on clearance for a buck or two. He sits on the “mail-dump” piece of furniture in the front hall



I don’t remember where I got this guy, but he was purchased some time last year. He’s sitting on the ledge of one of the windows that flank our front door.

I prefer to decorate with snowmen instead of Christmas. Then I can leave things out longer :)

There’s one other thing I finally took care of while I was in “git ‘er done” mode



I finally hung up my birthday presents! I have a better photo, but apparently I forgot to throw it on Flickr so I could access it here.

Yes, my birthday was in May. The Hubster did pretty well, having my signed program from March’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me! visit and the accompanying ticket signed. He also got my signed Barenaked Ladies CD and concert ticket (two separate meetings with the band) framed.

Yeah, it took me six months to get this done. So sue me!

I’m in Florida (don’t get excited. I’ve been outside the hotel for a grand total of 30 minutes since my arrival on Sunday at 2:30 pm) all week and will try to blog when spare moments come up. The “big reveal” for the M&Ms quilts was last night. Lisa was kind enough to email me photos of seven of the eight quilts. I’ll just have to wait to see mine until it shows up in the mail!

My “master plan” is to work backwards, featuring each quilt as it was when it spent time in Pennsylvania, starting with Beth’s (the last quilt I sewed on) and finishing with my own masterpiece, which I haven’t seen since February. Please be patient. I can only access the web when I’m in the conference area of the hotel, and my spare time is limited this week.

Okey dokey. Back to work!