Two weekend reports in one...

We've been a little busy, as you'll see...

Last weekend (April 22-24th):
Saturday we went to NJ with Jen to join up with J&J, T&N and A&B. Had a blast at CrossStitchUnlimited (our not-so-LNS) and enjoyed showing off three very different finishes of the same piece. If Reba ever sends me the photo, I’ll post it here. The guys were very patient with us at the stitching store. Then to Gamer’s Realm so that we could all hit a store we all enjoyed. I was very good at both stores. I bought three specialty flosses (threads) at the stitching store, and a card game I’d been eyeing since ConnCon. After that we headed out to Quakerbridge Mall to kill some time before meeting up at Mastori’s for dinner with Bob and Sue joining up with the huge crowd. Somehow on the way to QBM, we lost T&N, who were following us. I feel horrible about it, and have no idea where we lost them. They were behind me, and then they weren’t! Not good. Had an awesome dinner at Mastori’s, but didn’t get to spend as much time talking to folks as I might have liked. I think the group was a little too big, but all good people! Brian’s older brother had been working in Bordentown (where Mastori’s is) for the week and was going to join us for dinner, but ended up flying back on the Saturday morning. The drive back to NY after dinner was YUCKY! Heavy, heavy rain, with the speed limit on the NJ turnpike reduced to 35 mph for large sections of it. Makes for a much longer, more unpleasant drive. And the batteries on Jen’s/Joe’s Gameboy ran out just as I was about to clear out level 15 on Dr. Mario. Just not fair! But a fun day overall.
Sunday it continued to rain horribly all day. Truly disgusting weather. Spent the day stitching on Butterfly Song and got a lot done! Went to IKEA in the afternoon to try to find something useful to do with the space vacated by our now gone freezer. Decided what I want, but don’t want to drive it home roped to the roof of the car in pouring rain. By Sunday night we ha gotten over 8 inches of rain on the island.
Monday, surprised Brian by not getting out of bed! I’ve been rather burnt out at work lately and decided to book the day off to relax. Too bad the weather didn’t co-operate. Spent the day indoors and watched a couple of the DVD’s Brian had gotten for his birthday. Finished all the stitching on Butterfly Song and realized I’d need to go out to get the beads to finish it completely. Got out the camera to photograph BFS as finished stitching to post to blog. Camera glitched... Now, we’ve had an intermittant problem with this camera for well over a year now, but without actually taking it into the store while it was malfunctioning, they wouldn’t do anything. Haul ourselves to Best Buy as I frantically try to keep it from auto-shutting off. Deal with really nice guy in service department. Too bad their computers don’t all show the same info on what products are covered! Long story short, it took 3 hrs, but they sent my camera out to get fixed. Now I just have to wait for it to come back. In 3-8 weeks!!! ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!! No photos for a while. :( Remembered to pick up the beads though!

This past weekend (April 29-30th):
Friday night: finally planted much of my garden that's to be grown from seed. Planted peas, catnip, marigolds and alyssum (sp?). Will need to pick up some more veggie plants from greenhouse at some point.
Saturday we went back to NJ to CSU again for Jen to pick up her framed piece. Took Jess with us this time. Have managed to thoroughly addict her to stitching too. :) She chose a lovely celtic piece for her next project. I still think she should have choosen Bunny Battle! I had planned to be very good and work on projects I already have the pattern/supplies for. I bought fabric for Winter in My Garden and the Castle Sampler as well as a couple more flosses I need for existing WIP (Works in Progress). Then I broke my promise to be good. I fell in love with a pattern we ALL agreed was perfect for me. I give you: FLOSSTITUTE . I’m changing the colours around (a subtle blue-purple mix on black fabric) as a true flosstitue would. Had a late lunch at Mastori's. Do you see a pattern here? Skipped dessert at the restaurant, but brought home a delightful cherry pie. Great weather all day and an easy drive for Jen. Flosstitute’s had a good start already in the car on the way back. Saturday evening Harry came over and I got him and Brian hooked into Three Dragon Ante (the card game I’d bought the weekend before).
Sunday morning I stitched on Flosstitute until Brian got up. We had a relaxing brunch and then headed out to Heckscher State Park for a 5 mile walk. Beautiful clear sunny day, and just warm enough I didn’t need my coat. Then we used our free movie coupons to go see the new Robin Williams movie RV. Meh. It was okay at best, and highly predictible. Strongly a "wait for the DVD" movie. But hey, we had free tickets, so nothing lost. Then home and Brian made wonderful lemon-garlic shrimp for dinner. Yummy!

Phew! I'm tired from just writing it all out. Hope everyone else is having a great time!