Monday, January 29, 2007

Trip Decision Made!

We're going to be in London and Paris in March!


I can't wait. I can't wait to show Brian some of the wonderful things I've seen and done in London. I can't wait to meet up with friends there. But mostly, for me, I can't wait to actually make it to Paris. Over the years I've had 4 trips cancelled, keep your fingers crossed for me that this one is the charm! We'll have four nights in London, then take the "Chunnel" (Eurostar Tunnel Train) to Paris for 4 nights before flying back, ironically with a layover in London! I'm sure this blog will have many, many more posts as we get closer to the trip!

I've been tagged!

I think this is the first time I've actually been tagged, not volunteered to be tagged! Heather tagged me to list six weird things about myself. Here goes:

1. I have 7 tattoos, and didn't know I had gotten them until 2 years later. Even Brian hadn't seen them!
2. My right hand is significantly larger than my left. Like by more than half an inch!
3. The day I got my worst concussion I didn't hit my head. As Brian likes to put it "You're so dangerous you fall on your ass and give yourself a concussion".
4. I'm near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other.
5. I LOVE english muffins with jam and cheese. Sounds disgusting, I know. I told Brian so for years before breaking down and trying his one day when starving hungry.
6. My favourite food in the world is Kraft Dinner. Not mac and cheese, it has to be Kraft Dinner!


That was harder to write than I would have thought! I tag Kari, Allura and Clioratha!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Decisions decisions

We have to make the most wonderful of hard decisions. Long story short, I sold some stock options for work. We've paid off all our debt (except the car) and we're going to take a big vacation this year. And now we're just trying to finalize where. So, who votes what? Options A and B will cost about the same, while C and D are increasing in cost...

Option A: Hawaii
Pro: gorgeous scenery
Con: I burn through a 50 sunscreen in an hour, plus I'm not really keen on beach life or swimwear...

Option B: Paris and London
Pro: I've had 4 trips to Paris cancelled and am determined to finally make it there one day. Plus, I love London and would love to show Brian some of the neat things I've found there.
Con: I've had 4 trips to Paris cancelled. That's not a good track record... And the tour that would have had us in Paris on Valentine's Day is full (no surprise there...)

Option C: Paris, London and Rome
Pro: Add in one other city I'd love to go see. Take a slightly longer trip.
Con: Adds over $1000US for two days in Rome. Is Rome really worth it?

Option D: Blow all our money
Pro: probably 2+ weeks touring through much of Western Europe. See lots of places all in one trip. Trip of a lifetime!
Con: Cost. We're leaning away from this one on the basis that we should save some of the money...



So, what do you all think? Was there anywhere you went that you loved or hated?

Finally!!!


Photo by Deirdre Elliott (Cellphone)


We have snow, at least a little bit! We still haven't had a day where the temperature didn't get above freezing (and very few where it dropped below), so I don't expect it to last long, but we had snow! And there's more forecast for tonight, with a cold (below freezing) day forecasted for tomorrow. So I might get to see snow for two days in a row. How pathetic am I that the thing I miss most is the snow?

Thursday, January 18, 2007

It Figures!







What kind of yarn are you?




You are Dishcloth Cotton.You are a very hard worker, most at home when you're at home. You are thrifty and seemingly born to clean. You are considered to be a Plain Jane, but you are too practical to notice.
Take this quiz!








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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Lets see if this works...

I've wanted to change hosting my blog to my website for a while now, but I like how Blogger works. Really like it. And can't be bothered to change over to using some other system. So when I logged in this morning and Blogger conveniently now supports using them to post a blog on a custom domain...
We'll see if it will work. For now posts will still show here (they'd better!), and eventually I'll have to switch everyone over to blog.xvart.com . That address should be live now, but will likely take a little while to propagate through the internet.

Quick Happy Dance

I finished a quick project last night,but it's a gift, so I can't post a photo yet. Nikki, get me your address!!!! :) I just wanted to post it so I can keep track of it.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Quick Update


These are my tulips as of when I came home from work today. It's the middle of January. This is insane! However, we're supposed to go from our high of 60F today to a high of 22F on Wednesday, so I'm hoping they'll die down and still bloom in spring. Wish me luck!


And an updated photo of FrogPrince from the weekend's SAL. It's coming quite quickly, and I'm entranced by the subtle detail that emerges in it.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

RRROOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR

A certain author needs to be chastised.
How *dare* he end a book in the middle of a battle, where you know you only know half the strategy and you know he's got tricks up his sleeve.
GRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


And I was in bed early to finish the book and relax and hopefully get to sleep early.
So much for that. The (mostly) good news for me is that the next book comes out in April (I'd received this paperback for Christmas, thanks Mo!). And if I really want to yell at him, he'll be in the city on the 24th. I think I might just have to go...

GGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

Monday, January 08, 2007

Phoenix Finished!

Phoenix
Dracolair Designs
Unknown Zweigart hand dyed fabric

The @$^@$%$%@$%@^@#!$@ backstitching on this was a nightmare. The backstitch was charted on separate pages and was mostly done in long stitch, and didn't correspond well to grid intersections. It took forever and drove me batty while I was working on it. I should have finished it well before the end of 2006, but I didn't. I just couldn't force myself to work on it. But now it's done and it looks gorgeous. And I did discover how nice Kreinik's cord is to work with. Next up: finishing Frog Prince and bringing back out Fantasy Triptych. I'll have to find something simple to work on as well as both of those are very colour change intensive.

Nudge accepted! :)

Okay, so I really suck sometimes about updating this blog. Thanks for the nudge Heather. I've been meaning to, but I just never seem to get to it. Our Christmas vacation was very busy, and quite short. We had three days home in Cambridge and then two in Sudbury. We saw all the family. 'Nuff said for now. We did get to meet my "little" brother's girlfriend's family, at his invitation. Which he regretted... it was great! Hey John, is that lawnchair falling? I was sick before we left to go home with some sort of sore throat/laryngitis/sinus bug. Then, on Christmas Eve, I picked up quite a nasty stomach bug. Needless to say, I wasn't feeling up to much. I still haven't thrown the throat/sinus/lungs bug, so I'm off to the Dr's tomorrow if she'll have me. We came home in time for New Year's, which was spent quietly just the two of us relaxing. We needed it. We'd spent the last 5 weekends out of state or out of country. I really need to learn how to slow down sometimes in life and not accept so many obligations.
On the stitching front, below is the current photo of Frog Prince. I finished the backstitching on Phoenix finally on Saturday, but Blogger doesn't want to let me add another photo so I'll have to do that as a separate post.
I have lots more, but an even bigger desire for sleep....zzzzzzzzzzzzz......