holiday happiness

There are no words for how much I laugh every time I watch this. Maybe even funnier than it was in person. Spontaneity at its best.

photo of the day - sept 4

The two formerly known as the Little People. I've known these two since birth. So fun to get to take them to dinner and to see Despicable Me tonight. 

weekend fun in bailey, co

what's in your bag?

Great brunch today with friends. Most of us have a great love of cool bags, or shoes, or office supplies, or nifty gadgets, or music. Maybe even all of the above. Not sure how it started, but we all ended up emptying our bags at the table after brunch and sharing the contents. Quite humorous.

Cherith's loot.

Guess who?

Tracey and the teeny ziploc bags.

And, yes, I did have this orange bowl in my bag at this point. Because someone brought it back to me. Not because I make carrying Pyrex dishes around a regular practice. And this was before I put the turkey bacon back in my bag.

Rox is keeping the Burt's Bees folks in business.

Jess shows off a new journal.

Jess had the best bounty - passport, flash drive inside an eraser, red Moleskine, among other stuff.

Christi Pugh found the old Clifford Atari

What a small world we live in. I received this email today from a friend from childhood/college. The auction company she references is the company we used to dissolve my dad's estate back in March.

"I buy stuff from _________ Auctions & they do consignment sales every month, so in May I was bidding on a few things & saw this huge Atari lot. I had been thinking of getting one just for fun anyway, so I bid on it & won. Got it home & going through the box were the games & instructions, etc. At the bottom I found a piece of paper that had scores & names for William, Brian, & on the back your scores in your handwriting with your name, which I cannot mistake because we wrote so many letters. It was eerie...I sat on my couch for 30 minutes at first amazed saying to my dogs, "I have Amy's Atari," over & over again. I called Dena. I said, "This is the weirdest thing that ever happened to me." What are the odds that I would get your Atari? We used to play it in your bedroom. Yes, it does work. I cleaned it. A couple of the games need cleaning & don't work, but Donkey Kong works great. It is a funny stress reliever."

action-packed weekend here

I've been running non-stop the last couple of days.
Friday
- water-skiing at Standley Lake
- a jillion errands, including the lovely DMV
- house concert last night with The Blackthorn Project
The water-skiing made my heart happy and my muscles sore. The Blackthorns were great.
Today
- bridal shower for a friend
- church
- trip to Meininger to get supplies for my upcoming Glen Workshop
Tomorrow
- make grits casserole
- host brunch at my house
- bake birthday cake
- attend birthday dinner for a friend
- plan my strategy to get through this next week with the least amount of stress possible.
I have more to do at work than seems humanly possible to get done in the next six days. Also need to work on my photography portfolio. You know, the one that I was going to have together several weeks ago. Granted, the busy weekend stuff has been fun, but my batteries are running low. Hopefully I can find some little pockets of time to re-charge in the next few days.

wild weekend

Carla makes a valance for my dining room out of tea towels.

Close up view of the valance.

The finished product.

The pillow I am currently embroidering an ampersand on for my den.

Carla models the sun-dress I made in 9th grade home economics class. Yes, it is covered in green rhinos, but the photo does not do it justice.

Sunday supper. Pork loin, sweet potato fries, grilled asparagus, coca-cola salad (a southern classic), fresh tomatoes, whole grain bread, and, of course, sweet tea.

Nice, low-key, three-day weekend here. My friend, Carla, who has been my friend since birth, came out from Richmond for the weekend. A big thanks to Andrew for running the home front so she could hang with me and the little girls could enjoy Camp Daddy. (Thanks, Andy!) It was good to just get to hang out, go to the museum, work in the yard, cook a few nice meals, do some small projects, consume large amounts of coffee, and laugh a lot.

home again, home again, jiggity jig

Just back from seven fun-filled days on the Alabama Coast. Orange Beach, to be exact.

It was just what I needed. Time to totally down-shift, de-stress, process a little bit of grief, and relax.

We must be getting soft in our old age, because I don't think we stayed up past midnight more than once. Lightweights.

Eight or nine hours of sleep a night. Full days on the beach, books and trashy magazines in hand. I'll add them up in my end-of-the-month reading tally, but I think I read 5 books. Played a lot of Boggle. Flew a kite everyday. A ninety-nine cent Dora the Explorer kite that no one thought would last more than eight seconds. I made it last all week. Skill, I tell you.

Ate shrimp eighty-eleven different ways. Had to make up for living in a land-locked state.

Our stop at the FloraBama was uneventful...before the Mullet Toss crowd had fully arrived, and Souvenir City (flip-flop mecca) and Priester's Pecans were the favorite field trips.

It was good to be away.

Rev Gal Meet-Up, Take 2

Finally, I can post the photo of my meet-up with Presbyterian Gal and Wonderboy. The last two weeks found me in sunny, southern California for work. On Sunday I was able to have lunch with Presbyterian Gal and Wonderboy.

Wonderboy educated me on all things LEGO. He specializes in Star Wars Legos. Puts the Legos of my childhood to shame. Let me just say that his knowledge is quite impressive. If I'm ever on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and there is a Lego question, Wonderboy will be my go-to guy.

Presbyterian Gal was just as funny and entertaining in person as she is on her blog. While having blogging buddies is a blast, getting to meet them in person is icing on the cake!