Vignettes of a busy weekend

Saturday morning on the train:
An 8 year old girl and her dad were sitting behind me. Girl asks dad "But dad, when can I start to play Dungeons and Dragons? It looks like so much fun!" Guess who I spent my ride talking to. She was thrilled that I was actually going in to run a D&D adventure for a bunch of guys. "See dad, girls really can do anything!"

Saturday afternoon during the game:
We discovered that V has never seen a real James Bond movie! The adventure itself was a full on Bond hommage and a lot of fun. V will be coming over soon for a Bond day. Hrm, Roger Moore or Sean Connery first?

Saturday evening:
JenJen called while I was running the adventure. It was her birthday and they had tickets to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway. But Joey was sick and couldn't go. Was I interested in the other ticket and could I get into the city in time?

Sunday morning:
How many smartcar owners does it take to make a smart circle? Only one. The trick is getting all the others to listen to the one! The meetup was really neat, and there was a photographer there from National Geographic taking tons of photos. My bee could be in NatGeo!

Sunday evening:
Brian and I slowly discover we have joined the legions of the lobster people. Apparently 2.5 hours in the direct sunlight was too much, even through the SPF 50 sunscreen! Brian was also a little heatstroked, so we spent the evening taking care of him.

More assorted photos

Hope! This was taken after an ice storm in late spring



Roses from Jen and Joe's Wedding



My patio Christmas Tree



And getting artsy with my new(ish) camera...

Spring Garden Tour

Holy Flower Buds Batman! This is a dwarf lily from Costco and man is it a mutant... I counted more than 20 buds forming!















Anyone know what this flower is? I know it's from bulbs I planted a few years ago and they come up every year and only last a few days...

My stitching mojo's coming back!

Finally!

I just haven't been in the mood/able to stitch in months. But Friday night we put on a couple of shows we'd recorded and I pulled out the birth announcement with the neverending border. Saturday I worked on it a fair bit more. And Saturday night, I finished it! Not really, of course, 'cause it is the never ending border, but I finished all the major stitching for it. The best part was that it all lined up with itself. Phew, what a relief. Now I just need to fill in all 30+ mini-motifs and stitch the edge border... And, just for fun and a change of scenery, I did a full line across in the middle. How's that for daring? I even managed a little more on it during Sunday's gaming. Which was an absolute blast. I think Will's definitely up there on my list of favourite DM's! I'm so looking forward to Memorial Day Monday when we finish this 'honking big adventure'!

Loved the new Dr. Who (and I was so pleased to see the Ood back again) and BSG has me drooling for more and wanting the week to be over already. Now if only I could force them to run new episodes all year of that quality and never stop...

Wow. Just wow.

Two Great Weekends

In a row!

Last weekend was Brian's birthday on Friday. We both took the day off and enjoyed life, and the gorgeous weather. We slept in, saw the new Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie (definately a wait for the DVD, or better cable), then went to play pool at Dave and Busters. We got a call from our friends Ruth and David that they'd had a minor plan change and were now on their way over! They'd been planning on coming down to the area for Passover and had asked about cheap hotels... And our place is free!
Saturday was spent relaxing and having fun just hanging out. I feel bad that Ruth and Brian ended up doing my planting for me (my back still won't allow that), but given that the lilies are distinctly growing, I think it was a good idea. I tried to go get bloodwork done, but they'd changed the hours. Murp! I (or truthfully Dave) put the new plates on my car too! Wohoo!
We'd planned a very casual BBQ for Saturday night since Brian asked me NOT to plan a birthday party. It was also the weekend of NY Comic Con, so many of our friends were busy with that. It ended up with Brian, me, Michelle, Ruth and David. We relaxed, gamed, chatted a lot, played Wii (they brought Mario Party, which I can so see myself addicted to) and Marble Mania, which Ruth had brought as a thank you gift. It's me who owes them a thank you! I am so very much enjoying this game, and it's totally non competitive, which I appreciate. Sunday was spent calm and relaxed as well.
It's been so very long since we just had a calm, relaxing, fun weekend like that, and we needed it. It very much recharged my batteries.

This weekend was also a load of fun. We had tickets Saturday night to go see MacBeth staring Patrick Stewart with Joe, Jen, Jess and Jay. We decided we may need to change our names to "J" names too... The play was really good with phenomenal performances. In particular, the three Witches were incredible, and creepy. It was staged to be occurring at some point during a war in the early part of the 20th century and that lent an interesting twist. The dialogue was all just as Shakespeare had written it, but with the slightly modern setting. I am so very glad we went as it was such an experience.
Then, today, we had tickets to see Curtains. We've both been wanting to see it since it started last year, so I bought Brian tickets for his birthday. Shortly after I'd bought them they announced the show was closing the end of May. For anyone local, I *STRONGLY* urge you to go see it before it ends if you enjoy musicals or comedies. For this was great as both!

Yup, that's me!

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Science/Math Nerd   (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!) Well, maybe you aren't this extreme, but you're in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today. Very few people have the talent of math and science is something takes a lot of brains as well. Thank whosever God you worship, or don't worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people! Most of us would have died off without your help.
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Anime Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Musician
Drama Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Short Update and Phenomenal Video

No, go back and watch the video.
I mean it...


So, I've been pretty sporadic in updating my blog. Life has been incredibly boring for me so far this year. I've been sick, I've been really sick, I got mostly better, and then I hurt my back and was off work for an additional two weeks. So I really haven't been doing much blog worthy. I've been doing some stitching (well, I was before I hurt my back, I still can't stitch yet from that), but I can't post update photos since it's all gift stitching. How did I get into this!?! I totally love my new car, but still won't let Brian park it sideways, much to his chagrin. I haven't even really been taking photos to post. Sorry to be so boring. I'm alive and coping, but not doing much beyond that.

As promised

Sorry for the bad quality of the photo, but Brian took it with my cell phone. It's stopped raining today, so I'll try to get a better one. I also take no blame for it being parked sideways. Brian did it and it was when I went out to yell at him that he took this photo. It does fit though! (And the black car beside it is our Elantra, so we would have been able to get out had someone parked "behind" bumblebee.) Oh, and for my European visitors who might be a little confused about my needing to "adopt" a Smart, they've only just gone on sale in the US last month. And they had thirty thousand pre-orders for them... They're going to be hard to get for a little while!

Quickest Adoption in History!!

So, remember that last blog post about talking to the dealer Tuesday night about getting on the list for an orphan Smart? Guess who called Wednesday at lunch time? I just about had a coniption fit at work being stuck there. We got all the financing in order and picked Bumblebee up last night. Photos once it stops raining (or I get the one I took with my cell phone camera).

WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Squeee!!!

Brian and I signed papers today to adopt an orphan as soon as one becomes available to us! An orphan Smart Car that is. One that will look like this:



For all we would both desperately love for it to be adoption papers for a child of our own, that can't happen for years yet. As I discovered last week, we could adopt, but we couldn't bring the child into the US for at least another 5 years because of yet another $%$!#@$ in the immigration system. You cannot bring a child into the US through adoption unless you're a citizen. So there goes that option for us. And I already knew we can't adopt a child from within the US unless we're citizens. Can I just say how sick I am of this whole mess of a system?

But I am thrilled about my Smart! We did preorder one, and are still in the wait for it. Unfortunately because we did the smart thing financially and waited to put in a deposit on it, we're waaaay down the list. The best estimate to get the one we ordered is 8 months. So we're now on the orphan list for one still in my colours and with my basic options. (Passion coupe with heated seats!! and no hideous tachometer bubbles) The one we ordered has more than that, but those are my two basic requirements. And at this rate, I'll have a significant downpayment made before we go sign for the car!

In Sadness

E. Gary Gygax has passed away. May he live eternally in gamers' hearts.

In sadness

E. Gary Gygax has passed away. May he live eternally in all gamers' hearts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_en_ot/obit_gygax

As promised

And pointed out by mom, I haven't even posted a photo of Andrew yet. I've been both busy and sick to answer mom's other question, but I'm slowly getting my feet back under me. We'll be going home in 3 weeks, so I'll have lots of photos of all the nieces and nephews then!

Macbook Air

Drool..............

Anyone have $2500 they want to donate to a very deserving mac fan?
I don't even particularly want the $1000 solid state hard drive!

Yet another quiz because I don't have time for a real entry...

You Are a Total Brainiac

You're amazingly brilliant. Some would even say genius. You're curious, thoughtful, analytical, and confident. You take on difficult subjects because you want to... not because you have to. No field of knowledge is too complicated or intimidating for you. You've got the brains to do anything you want. It's possible you end up doing everything you want.

Are You a Brainiac?

Welcome Andrew Neil!

Born to my "little" brother John and girlfriend Kim at 6:50 this
morning, 9 pounds, 15.5 ounces! Mom had a hard labour but is
recovering and Andrew is doing great. Photos once I get some!

Yet another YouTube video

No big updates here, I've been sick and am slowly getting back on my feet.

Photos!!!

Did I mention it snowed this morning?




And since I have a new camera, I've been playing around with it of late. This is called "So Hungry!" ...




Playing with macro focussing...




And depth of field...





I had to include a photo of Brian!




And what photo roundup would be complete without photos of Percy?



And cheating to create a vignette look with a macro lens. Really, just playing around!



Finally, my mini-happy dance! I finished the middle section of TW's Fantasy Triptych this morning. Now I'm trying to distract myself from it so I put it away and work on more of my obligation stitching. I still owe for two babies (with number three coming any day now) and a wedding...

What we've been up to...

Other than dealing with a personal emergency (everyone will be fine in the long run, it's just going to take time), and work being crazy, and trying to meet deadlines, and helping organize for a convention, and stitching, and making almost 100 hand made cards, and playing with and learning about my new camera...
Not much!
Life's been insanely swamped (even for us) and is throwing us some curve balls, bringing stuff back from the past we thought long dealt with. But we're surviving and December is upon us. My first package for my advent exchange arrived (Thanks Heather!) and we even had snow today. Just a little, and it's supposed to turn to rain later, but it's snow for now! And thus, as Brian proclaimed (correctly) it is now allowed to be my birthday later this week. I hope to get some photos posted later, but my new card reader for the new camera doesn't seem to want to work. I've got a big stitching update!