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!

A Day in the Dungeon

OK, so it wasn’t the whole day. I stayed upstairs and worked until about 1:30. But the weather matched my mood (overcast and damp) and after making sure that I had finished all of my work that needed to get done, I decided to play a little hooky and spend the afternoon in my basement.

Yesterday, in celebration of my mom’s birthday, we visited another birthday party – at The Quilt Company! They had a good sale (Mom's favorite word!) so we went up there to check it out. I really love that shop and just wish it was the littlest bit closer to my house.

In any case, one of the things I bought was two packages of Bali Pop fabric and the (free) pattern to go along with it.

Welcome to Blurry Photo Day!

So this afternoon, I went downstairs and started cutting, then sewing.

Wow! Sorry 'bout that photo. I had no idea it was so bad and I only took one!

I’m about halfway through the blocks made from the first kit, and I’m starting to second-guess myself. Should I do the second pack since it’s the same colorway? Or run back up there and exchange it for a coordinating pack? I’m planning to make one quilt with this project. I’ll make a final decision later.

I also threw one of my first quilting projects in the washing machine. A year and a half of sitting in the basement left it open to spiderwebs and the like, so I didn't consider a bath optional. I knew the fabrics were lower quality and remembered that they had crocked when I sewed them, nearly eight years ago.

Yeek! (Yep. Three blurry photos!)

It came out just fine. There’s a tiny bit of bleed on the muslin background, but I knew that was coming before I threw it into the wash. It’s a several-inch thick poly batting and it’s tied. Not my best work. It’s a utility quilt, so I’m not upset.

I took a break from sewing tonight to go to a holiday party at The Frick with my mom, the Hubster, my aunt and a friend of hers. Then we went here for dinner (yum!).

OK. Back to the dungeon for a tiny bit of pressing so I can be ready to sew again tomorrow. Around a whack of errands in preparation for the Florida trip. I’m so not (mentally) ready to go. ::sigh::

Next!

Saturday was shot picking furniture for our entryway (we only got that halfway done), and a trip to West Virginia for a family holiday party.

Sunday was shot with work. I did manage to get a little knitting in, though. In a strange coincidence, I “gave up” on the game at the start of the fourth quarter and busted out my knitting. Within two minutes, the home team had collected an interception, followed by 15 points on the board. Unfortunately, that momentum didn’t hang around, so it wasn’t a great day at work.

Today was shot too. First, I had to shovel the dusting of snow off of my driveway (so it would melt/dry during the morning sun. I was successful in my endeavor), then heading on an adventure with my mom, aunt Suz and two of Suzie’s friends from W.Va. I was in a bit of a time crunch and although he was running as fast as he could, RT’s legs were too short to catch up with me as I flew out the door, so he stayed home.

Which was too bad, because I would really have liked to take his picture in the Norwegian Nationality Room at Pitt's Cathedral of Learning, for the benefit of Carol and Ole (Carol is one of my Cali quilting buddies and Ole, her husband, is Norwegian). All of the rooms are decorated for the holidays. It’s a really neat thing to do if you haven’t gone recently. We visited 25 of the 26 rooms. We skipped Africa, because it was locked.

Knitting-wise, I’m starting on the fifth of six leg repeats of the second Monkey sock. Shouldn’t be a challenge to get the heel turned by tomorrow night.

Since I have nothing else interesting to share with you lovely people, we’ll move along to my meager holiday decorations.

Jen asked for a shot of the decorated indoor tree, so here you go:

Here’s a great shot I took on Saturday as soon as we got home from the aforementioned family party
I haven’t managed to make stockings for us yet, so I took my mom up on her offer to “adopt” the stockings she has for us, since they no longer have a spot to hang the whole yellow piece of bulky acrylic yarn full of the full family’s six stockings. Anyhoo, here’s mine. It’s 36 years old. Just like me!



And here’s the Hubster’s. It’s probably four or five years old. If I remember right, he got his family stocking shortly after the wedding, which was in 2003.

Uh-huh. I may be her firstborn, but he definitely got the better-looking stocking! Pretty cool, huh?

I hope to return these stockings to their rightful place with my mom’s collection next year, and make my own for the two of us. It’s not that I don’t love these stockings, but I’d like to make my own. Plus, I was inspired by the beauties that Dave posted a week or so ago. Aren’t they awesome?

So that’s about it from chez DPUTiger. I’ll try to have something more interesting for you tomorrow!

WWE Are The Champions

I’m being forced to watch the 15th Anniversary of Monday Night RAW, so please bear with me. And welcome to my 200th post!

Today was full of little to-dos. Took the first steps towards getting blinds on the upstairs windows. Did some minor cleaning up.

Got Steelers Scarf II and Jaywalker Scarf II blocking

Got bothered by door-do-door religion saleswomen (THEM: we’d like to share something positive from the Bible. ME: No thanks)

Put out a holiday decoration or two


Yep. Just 15 days until Christmas. Hard to believe!

Went out with my mom and acquired a Christmas tree … our first one! It’s the first time we’ll spend the holiday in the city where we live, so there really wasn’t a reason to get one before now

It’s still naked. It’s busy slurping up water, “relaxing” and drying (it’s been raining here for about 36 hours). I’ll start putting lights on it tomorrow and Scrooge and I (uh, I mean the Hubster and I) plan to decorate tomorrow night.

But the outdoor decorations are up and running


My grandfather made that Santa. My sister-in-law got it “restored” about two years ago and after a year’s hiatus, he’s back on the front porch roof here.

Oh, and I’m through the leg on my first no-purl Monkey sock in Yarn Love. I need to tink a round and a half because I thought I was through five repeats, not six. Oh well.


In other news, I burned the crap out of my tongue on dinner … not the tip like you’d do on hot chocolate, but the middle. It was lasagna. Good (frozen) lasagna but, obviously, too hot. What to do to make it feel better?

Eat ice cream, of course! So I went downstairs (it lives in the downstairs freezer so it’s not so convenient. Helps with the self restraint). It’s not as good as the similar composition Panda Paws I can get at the Lake (what would you expect from something partnered with the Pirates? Excellence?), but it’s made by Hagan and that family is OK with me b/c they had excellent taste in homes/architects. Anyhoo, my bowl of ice cream came back upstairs with me, and now I’m mildly ill because I’ve eaten too much.

But my tongue feels better!