I have a number of entries I’d like to do, that really should have a picture to go with them. I think I’ll give you the synopsis today, and try for pictures over the coming week.
The exercise ladies who contributed squares to the “Share a Square” project came to the house yesterday afternoon to work on assembling two afghans. We have to edge each block with black crochet, and then sew 48 of the blocks together, and crochet around the entire edge. Yesterday we managed to edge 48 of the blocks. We meet again in a week, and will probably have to meet once more. My table is covered with a rainbow of blocks edged in black!
I found batik fabric for pillowcases when I was in Florida. I saw a case, and fell in love with it. My “souvenir” was the fabric for two of the cases. I found an excellent pattern on-line. I could have winged it, but it was nice to have a pattern for back-up. I’ll post a picture of the finished project soon, I hope.
This coming week is personal tax week for me. My sister-in-law does Elegante Mother’s taxes, but I need to mail the information off to her. Then, I need to answer the planner from my CPA, gather information from Quicken, collect the 1099s and such, and send that package off. My CPA will be ASTONISHED if I get them to her by March 15th. She’s busy completing the company tax packages
Tomorrow, Elegante Mother and I are going to a nursery for an early planting day. They will provide plants and soil and the additives for the containers. We bring containers and choose which plants we want, and spend some time planting them. The nursery will keep them until mid-May, when it’s warm enough to put them out, and we will have mature (well, maturing), arrangements. I’ll take pictures tomorrow, and pictures when we set them out. I figure it’s a way to get our hands in the dirt, and assuage the need for Spring.
Quilting Bee meets tonight. I’ll be crocheting, rather than quilting, but they won’t mind. One of our members will be away, helping to hang quilts for a quilt show. I hope that I’ll get to see that show on Sunday afternoon. (Note: This is another way to ignore that Spring is not yet here. A quilt show is always a good diversion!)
Monday the cat has his annual visit to the vet. Tuesday, EM and I are taking lunch to a friend who broke her ankle in February. Thursday is EM’s salon appointments and a Share a Square afternoon. Saturday is a perm, and so on and so on. I’m going to have to start working in the office at night, to get caught up.
I hope you are all “weathering” the end of winter well. I know Bogie is longing for green, and Joy is looking for a cessation of white. I’m ready to be able to go out doors without having to put on my coat!
Have a great weekend!

This is a shot of the Chinese take out kitchen near our hotel in Florida.

A HERD, I tell you! As we were preparing dinner tonight, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a HERD of Robins! Usually I’m the last of our family to see the return of the robins, and usually I only get to see just one at a time. There must have been a dozen birds at the very least, and maybe twice that. They were in the herb garden, beneath the truck, in the black walnut and apple trees, and the shrubs near a bunny. They have a very distinctive run and hop, and were easy to identify, and they were fluffed up in defense of the cold.
Spring just HAS to be around the corner, despite the fact that we are supposed to get several inches of snow over the next 24 hours. Surely the robins wouldn’t be back if it wasn’t time, right??

Elegante Mother and I go to exercise three mornings a week. One of the things we work on at class is balance. This morning when we entered the room, there were two long strips of blue duct tape on the floor. The last 15 minutes of class, we lined up to walk the line!
The first time through, we walked relatively normally, one foot in front of the other. There were a lot of jokes about Breathalyzers and cops. The next time through, we brought our foot around in a circle before setting it down, and the last trip through we put a foot forward, touching down toe first, and then heel.
I discovered that most of it was simple to do if I was able to move through it fast enough. If the person in front of me was moving slower than I was, my balance went to pot.
I have one other balance test that was suggested to me. A person in their sixties should be able to hold this pose at least 10 seconds. Stand up, straight. Suck everything in and focus on keeping your core tight. Cross your arms, laying your hands on the opposite shoulders, close your eyes, and lift one leg to a 45 degree angle.
The first time, I keeled over almost immediately. I hadn’t prepared by setting my posture and firming my core muscles. The second time I tried it, I got to about six seconds before I listed. One of my classmates was talking to me and distracted me. I think if I practice this in the kitchen, I should be able to master it.
Try it. How long can you hold this posture?

I seem to have reached a crisis point. I’ve been writing entries in my head for the past year or so, and they aren’t getting onto the computer. Part of the problem is that I need to make a date to write. It doesn’t need to be daily, but I need to set a time when I can go to the computer and put down my thoughts. I also need to keep a note pad handy to write down the ideas or sentences which come to me when I’m not at the computer.
AND, I need to take some memory building classes. I was just standing at the kitchen sink, rinsing knives, and in just two minutes, had an entry fleshed out. By the time I got to my computer….no more than five minutes later…..I couldn’t remember the subject of the entry. This is really ticking me off.
Do you suppose more walking would improve my memory? Please tell me I’m just going through a phase, and that things will improve!

I know….thank you notes seem to have gone by the way of dinosaurs, but I still try to say thanks for all the things people do for me and things they give to me. I had a long list of notes to write from the holidays, and diligently worked on them. My goal was to have every single one done before we took off on vacation. (Actually, they should have been done MUCH sooner, but I dragged my heels.)
Wednesday morning, around 5:44 I finished the last note. It was really the one I most wanted to send, and it was going to take days to write, because I had so many things for which I needed to say thanks. I finally gave in, and typed it at the computer. I folded the thank you letter, and enclosed it in a Valentine’s Day card, and was trying to insert the card into the envelope, when the limousine arrived to take us to the airport. That card was NOT going to go into the envelope. I kept working at it, even though I could hear the guys talking in the foyer. Elegante Mother was standing in the doorway, watching me, and finally she said….”Let me do it.” I put the entire thing in her hands and trusted her to mail it for me. I figured if I kept forcing it, I was going to tear the envelope, and then we’d never get to the airport!
I was talking with my sister this week, and apologized for having sent a typed note. I know that she treasures those notes that I take the time to write. Those notes are few and far between these days. My handwriting is getting almost illegible.
Do you struggle to let people know how much you appreciate all they do for you? I find myself writing letters in my head that never get onto paper. Perhaps I need to drop everything when one of those notes starts writing itself, and get it written. Maybe I need to find a pen that will write under water, so I can do them in the shower. Or….perhaps I need to resurrect my tape recorder, so I can dictate notes when I’m in the car. (I know you’ll all be thrilled to have me driving and dictating at the same time! lol) Another favorite time to mentally create notes is when my hands are in hot, soapy water, or when I’m working at the sewing machine. Doesn’t this happen to you, too?
If you’ve been the recipient of a late thank-you note from me, please be assured that I really do care. I guess you could say the spirit it willing, but the body is overloaded (in more ways than one.) Thank you, thank you, thank you all, for the lovely things you’ve given to me, and the things you have done. I’m very grateful!

By saying…..”I’m Hoooo-oooommme!”
Dear Husband and I flew to Florida, and spent a week in warm weather. Thank you, all, for your notes and the hope that we would have a good time. We did!
Unfortunately, as we were on our way to the airport, I realized that I was coming down with something upper respiratory, but I kept quiet about it. I wanted to go, even if it meant lying by the pool and baking out whatever nasty virus decided to make itself at home. Tough duty, but SOMEONE has to do it! *G*
As usual when we travel, the first afternoon was spent resting. Thursday morning we headed to the Gulf coast side of Florida, and visited beaches in Bradenton and Siesta Key. Bradenton’s beach is an almost deserted stretch of narrow white sand beach with no amenities. We trudged down to the water’s edge and hiked on the wet-packed sand, first north, and then south. This is really our kind of beach. We enjoyed having the area almost to ourselves, and as true Northerners, lapped up the breeze and the sun.
I didn’t realize how much further south Siesta Beach was, but it was highly recommended, so we made the trek south, traveling from island to island until we found Siesta Beach. This beach is the opposite extreme from Bradenton’s beach. It’s the widest beach I’ve ever seen, and it stretches two miles along the Gulf. Even in February it was filled with people. I imagine in June you can’t make your way to the water without stepping on someone. You could rent chaise lounges that had an interesting accessory. It was a royal blue sunshade that resembled the top of an old-fashioned baby buggy. It would shade the upper half of you as you laid on the chaise.
By this time, I was all for renting chairs and flopping down. My idea of a vacation is to sit by a very large body of water and read. And, by this time, my viral friend had me coughing, and short of breath. Just sitting really appealed to me, but Dear Husband smiled at me and said, “Shall we walk??” I think the man was trying to kill me off! We walked, but not quite as far as we might have, had I felt better. We watched people and water, and lots of birds.
I suggested to Dear Husband that we might want to rent a room in the area, rather than making the trip back to Orlando. That seemed like a good way to stay and enjoy the beach and weather, but DH was up for the drive, and we traveled from Siesta Key back to Orlando during rush hour. The trip went relatively smoothly, and we had a late dinner at a Cuban restaurant.
Saturday, DH golfed in his son’s memorial golf tournament, and I spent our retirement funds on quilt fabrics! *G*
Sunday, I told DH I wasn’t going ANYWHERE. He is an amazing man. He sweet-talked me into going downstairs to sit around the pool. It was heavenly. We started out near the whirlpool. I hiked up my pant legs and stuck my feet in the warm water, and DH hit the button to start the jets. After a bit of that, we shifted to chaise lounges in the shade, and just enjoyed the warmer weather. I finally got to read a book, and the heat helped my battle with the virus.
Immediately north of our hotel was a plaza with seven or eight places to eat. There was the “Run and Run” Chinese takeout. (We skipped that purely on the basis of it’s name. *G*) There was an Indian place, a Cuban place, a Hooters, a really good seafood place called the Crab House, a CiCi’s pizza, and a Carvery and Tiki Bar. We ate at the Crab house four times! I tried Red Snapper and Grouper for the first time.
Monday, we returned to the Gulf Coast area. Dear Husband had planned a loop that would let us drive through Tampa and St. Petersburg to the road that traveled north up the keys. We stopped at St. Pete Beach, which was very nice. We watched people flying kites, and watched birds and people, and walked up and down the beach. (Notice….no sitting…..sigh) The weather was a little rougher on Monday. Serious storms were passing north of us on a NE-SW axis, and the sky was cloudy. The waves were just a bit rougher than on Thursday, and the breeze was brisker, but we were totally comfortable in short sleeves. DH had on shorts. As you people watch on the beach it’s pretty clear who lives in Florida and who is a tourist!
We made one last beach stop, at Redington Beach, I think. We watched people surfing with short boards and small parasails. It must take incredible upper body strength to be able to stay upright and maneuver those parasails! I spent some time trying to get a video of a pelican diving into the water. I want to isolate one of the frames to send to my nephew, who broke his neck diving in the Indian Ocean. He’s doing very well, almost back to normal.
The storms began to close in on the area, and we decided to head back to Orlando. We dined one last time at the Crab House, and then spent some unglamorous time organizing laundry and repacking our bags. Dear Husband is SURE that I take everything but the kitchen sink when we travel, and he does have a point. I’m happy to say that I had just one pair of slacks that I didn’t wear while we were away, and one tunic sweater. Had we gone to Cir du Soliel as we had hoped, even those would have been worn Next time, I PROMISE not to take everything in the bathroom with us. Just remind me that I can actually pick something up in the stores if I really need it.
The flight back was 25 minutes late in leaving the airport. Elegante Mother was concerned about us. I called once we were on the freeway to tell her when we’d get in. She said that cat moped and refused to eat for the first four days we were away. I spent the evening loving up the cat, and getting laundry started.
It was great. We didn’t do anything earth-shaking, but the time away was wonderful. We only had to set the alarm twice in seven days, and I didn’t have to make the bed or clean the room, or fix a meal, or answer the phone! YEAAAHHHHHHHHh! My kind of vacation! Can we go back now????

This morning, I SHOULD have been doing office work, and running errands, but I got involved in a project, and just couldn’t set it down.
I have some friends who have a little boy in third grade. His class is sending travel mates to friends and relatives in an effort to learn more about the world in which they live. When the request went out for participants, I was wiggling in my seat with my hand up in the air, saying “Yes, Yes! I want to do it!” And luckily, they said I could! *S*
My little friend’s travel mate is one of the original beanie babies, a moose named “Chocolate.” Chocolate arrived on my doorstep on Thursday, despite the blizzard outside. I’ve been asked to write a message in his travel book, add something to the box and send it on to the next name on the list. I’m also supposed to send a postcard to the classroom, so they can see where Chocolate has been.
I have a niece in Perth, Australia. I sent her an e-mail, asking if there was any possibility that she could participate. Despite the fact that she is incredibly busy, she said she’d be willing to help. I’m supposed to box up Chocolate and send him on to her. She will add a few things to the box and send it to one of my friends in England. You know her….it’s Bod! Bod is going to send it on to her God-daughter in London. Just telling you about it gives me goosebumps. This is likely to be the travel mate with the most air miles!
So, this morning, I realized I had to add a message to the travel book. I typed out several paragraphs, and played with the font. I had a lot of room left, and got to thinking about pictures to add around the text. By the time I was done, I had four pictures of cornfields, two of soybeans, and two of Chicago airports. There was a picture of Abraham Lincoln, one of Barak Obama, two of the Chicago skyline, two of Wrigley Field, one of Navy Pier and one of the Chicago lighthouse. There’s a picture of a well head, for the oil fields down state, and a picture of vehicles in snow banks (seemed fitting given the weather this week!). And I added a map of the state. All of this was done in miniature. I was on a ROLL! *G*
I realized that if I delayed Chocolate’s trip to Australia by four days, he could travel to Florida with us! So, I had to make one more page for the travel book! Oranges, alligators, the castle at the Magic Kingdom, palm trees, beaches and a light house fill in the space around the text. I was beginning to worry that I might not get all my work done. I had such a good time playing with the glue stick I really didn’t want to quit. But…If I want to go to Florida, enough needed to be enough.
Chocolate will fly in my carry on, and I plan to take pictures of him in Chicago and in Florida to send to Chocolate’s owner when we return to Illinois. From there he will fly to Australia. I can’t wait to hear what he brings home from OZ!
I’ve been talking about this project with almost anyone who will listen, and I’m delighted to find that others are offering their contacts. Chocolate must be back in the classroom by May 1st, but if we have time when he returns from England, he could go on to Minnesota, and to Idaho. He’s going to be a very well-rounded bear! *S*
You’re probably wondering what I added to the box. Well, I went shopping for a Cubs baseball cap that would fit an 8 year old, and I added a picture book of Chicago. I had a map of Illinois, too, but that’s been mailed to the classroom. I was going to send an ear of corn, and some soybeans, but they’d never make it through customs! As for what I’ll put in the box from Florida, who knows. We’ll shop when we get there.
Don’t you just love being able to help kids with their school projects! *G*