Entrelac shawl

Just a usual Monday around here. I had really bad cards at bridge today - at least until the last round. I just score with that round. Isn’t that always the way?! John took his car to Firestone to get some brake work done, and general check-up. Just stuff that needs to be done from time to time.

I did a bunch more knitting on the shawl. I’m really liking the pattern and the look. This is a picture of the pattern, but I’m doing it in a dark red - yummy!

 

Very quiet weekend

John did yard work this weekend, and I washed and knitted. Together we edited photos. Not terribly exciting, so I'll post three more photos of the duck decoy carving. Two of the photos are of the artist carving and his tools. The last photo is one of his finished decoys.

 

 

 

Sleepy Saturday

I'm making up for all the activity this week by doing not much except starting my new knitting projects over the weekend. I'm finding one of the patterns is taking some learning on my part, so I'm doing some smaller stuff and having to look things up on the internet (isn't it wonderful that we can do that!!!).

John had to get up on the roof this morning and get down a small limb that had fallen and cut off a bigger limb that had died. I hate it when he does that, but...... Anyhow, I'm concerned about the part of the tree that hangs over the house, but he really doesn't want to cut it all down. The wonderful shade it prove avides helps so much with the a/c bill in the summertime and keeping the house comfortable. So there it stays!

We did get some photo editing done this evening. That’s really tough job.
==================================
This is the first of a series of carving a duck decoy.

 

Road trip and fun

What a fun morning I’ve had! Swimming as usual, and then to Panera - nothing new here. But then we got to talking about a relatively new quilt shop in North Georgia that also sells yarn. Some had been there, some hadn’t. FIELD TRIP!!!!

As it turned out, four of us piled into one of our cars, left the others in the Panera parking lot, and headed out. This place is incredibly dangerous. Especially when going with a bunch of “enablers”. There are two rooms of wonderful fabrics - for quilts, of course, but would certainly do for general sewing. And books and supplies for other thread-based crafts. And then there’s the yarn room. OMG!!!

Well, I’ve been looking to start on a project other than socks - and now I have two. One is a semi-lace cardigan (white), and the other is an entrelac (interlocking diamonds) shawl (ruby red). Nothing like finding things to spend money on - and a terrific place wanting to help you do just that. And then we went out to lunch at a nearby tearoom.

John wound my skeins of yarn into balls, but that was about all the work that happened this afternoon.

Then Allan called, and we met Allan & Tina and Vicki & Roger for dinner at Biba’s Italian restaurant. Another delicious meal, then home for some more conversation to close out the day.

A terrific day with good friends!
=============================================
I love this abstract photo with pier reflections.

 

Some good news

I spent most of the day on the computer - doing some Friends of the Library stuff, and working with the photos. But the big reward came in the late afternoon.

We went to a Thursday Happening at the Hunter Museum of American Art. Chef Mike Adams of Blue Orleans Seafood Restaurant spoke about New Orleans creole cooking, history, and culture. Blue Orleans is one of our favorite places to eat, so it was fun to listen to Chef Adams. He made some jambalaya as he talked, and when he was finished, we got to eat some gumbo (which he had brought with him). How terrific was that! I talked with Chef Adams afterwards and asked him if they might be having a crawfish boil. He said that he probably would, sometime after the first of the year during the season.

Of other interest is that the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is just a couple of days away - making this program very timely. Chef Adams came to Chattanooga three days before Katrina to stay with relatives, getting away from the storm - and he decided to stay here. What a bonus for Chattanooga - that we inherited this lovely man and his wonderful food. Chef Adams said he is now getting good, freshly-caught shrimp from the docks in New Orleans - Katrina and BP notwithstanding. And that’s good news.
==============================================
The flat vista of Tangier Island marshes.

 

Another busy day

The Friends of the Library secretary and I got some preliminary work done for November’s annual meeting. I have to get some additional information sent out for the stuff to be printed, and will do that in the morning.

I met with Vicki, Judy McC, and a couple of other painters for lunch at a little local café - I had a wedge of spinach/mushroom quiche and a small salad - but then I blew it all with a lemon square for dessert. Yum!

And I even cheated on dinner. I stopped on the way home and got a rotisserie chicken. We do love them, and I always get at last three meals out of one, plus cooking down the bones and skin for broth. It’s definitely a bargain in this house.

We’ve been doing more work on the photographs from our trip. We’ve managed to move John’s photos into my computer, and now I’m in the process of getting all the photos in chronological order, so we can have his and mine together. It’s not hard, but it is tedious. Fortunately, we’ve also figured out how to show the photos on the TV, and that makes it SO much easier to edit. The hardest part is going to be editing the zillions of photos we took at Stonehenge.
===========================
In the meantime, these are crab shacks at Tangier Island, VA.

 

Major photo edit

I'm jumping back to Tangier Island, VA, for a few days, while we undergo major photo editing from the Iceland/England trip. So these are some buoys near the dock on Tangier Island.

 

=========================================================

It was a lovely day today. The high was around 90, but with a breeze and very low humidity - just about a perfect summer day. I even used the oven to fix a pizza for supper tonight - maybe the first time I've turned the oven on in 2-3 months.

I went to see Eat, Pray and Love this afternoon with some of the swimmers. It's a good movie - pretty much a chick-flick, but still good. The scenery is gorgeous, the music is great. The only nudity wasn't even one of the main characters - just a good-looking young male butt. And Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem??? What's not to like! All in all, a good way to spend a Tuesday afternoon (with $1.00 for popcorn and drinks).

Back in the swing?

Guess I’m sortta getting back into the swing of things - at last momentarily.

Today was a fairly regular Monday - with swimming, coffee, Aldi, Walmart, and bridge. Whew! That’s enough to wear a gal out.

We had some new people (at least to us) at bridge today. The two that I had contact with (playing with or against) were very nice, but pretty bad bridge players. Oh, well…at least I had better cards this week.

The swimmers started cooking things up at coffee this morning. So far, we had a matinee movie on for tomorrow (Eat, Pray, and Love). And for Wednesday, several of the artists (Judy Mc, Vicki, Sandy, and I) are getting together for lunch. Before that, I’ll be going down to the library to work on the Friends of the Library annual meeting.

Maybe this is back to a busy life.
=================================
Lowering fog in Snaefellsness. There really is a lot of green in Iceland. Legend has it tht the folks who discovered Iceland thought it was beautiful. But they didn't want to encourage somebody else to take it. So they named it in a way that would make it seen inhospitable. By the same logic, they wanted to encourage people to go to that other island, so they named it "Greenland", even though it was mostly ice-covered.

 

More pictures

More pictures from the Snaefellsness Peninsula. The first one is one of my favorites from Iceland.

 

 

 

 

10 Reasons why gay marriage is wrong

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong
by Will McGarvey on Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 11:12pm

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

Re-post this if you believe love makes a marriage.

Shopping again????

I had decided I needed to have a couple of long summer skirts to take on the trip next spring (I like all my skirts to be ankle length), and couldn't find anything online. I looked through all the Coldwater Creek sale skirts, but anything I half-way liked didn't come in my size. Anyhow, I had almost decided to start looking for fabric to make something, when I talked with Vicki. She told me that Belk had all their summer stuff on sale. So, I actually went SHOPPING again this morning.

I tried on a bunch of stuff, and wound up getting two skirts and three tops. One of the tops is a dressy chiffon-y top, but was 50% off, and will look really good with dressy white or black pants or skirts, so I know I'll wear it. Amazing for me!
=====================================
Along the Snaefellsness Peninsula. The glare is from the bus window - but I couldn't pass up this unnamed waterfall.

 

 

"Iceland" is a misnomer

I guess there will be lots of slow days for a while - until I find something to fill up the times that I spent at the Studio/Gallery. Today was no exception to that.

John did some looking for flights for the trip next spring to SE Asia. And I started looking for some clothes - skirts in particular. I looked at the sale stuff on the Coldwater Creek web site. Anything that wa long enough (for me - 36”) didn’t come in my size. I had about decided to get some fabric and make a couple of skirts. Then I talked to Vicki and she said they had lots of summer clothes on sale at Belk - so I guess I’ll head over there in the morning. The predicted highs during our trip will be around 90, so I guess we’ll be needing summer-weight clothes.
========================================
In talking to one of the Rice alums on the Iceland trip, I found that his aunt and I were classmates in high school and at Rice. It really is a small world. I got an e-mail from her today, and will be writing. (Hi, Helen!)
------------------------------------------
These photos were taken from the bus on the Snaefellsness Peninsula. The colors are pretty true - it is green in Iceland.

 

 

First excursion

We went to the Photo Society tonight. Tom and Pat Cory did the program, and part of it was about their trip to Iceland - just before we were there. And we didn’t run into each other. They were giving a workshop and were always with a local guide. They got into the interior and a lot of places we didn’t see - and, of course, we got to places they didn’t. Anyhow, they’re great photographers, and it was wonderful to see their photographs.

Our first excursion after we sailed from Reykjavik was to the Snaefellsness Peninsula. Icelandic is a very difficult language. Because of the country’s isolation, the language is now considered to be the parent language of the Scandinavian languages. A single word or name is frequently made up of other words. Snaefellsness is basically Snow (snae) - mountain (fells) - headland (ness).

 

 

South Pacific!

What a wonderful treat we had tonight!

On PBS, Live at Lincoln Center showed a performance of the current Broadway revival of South Pacific. Thanks, Anne, for the heads-up about this telecast. It’s an incredible performance of that fantastic show. It was ground-breaking when it first hit the stage, and this performance is no different.

South Pacific was the first live performance of a Broadway show that we’d ever seen. It was a road show back when we were living in Houston - probably around 1960. This staging was very similar to the way I remember the one we saw all those years ago. Just wonderful!!!

I hope you saw it, or can catch it on your local PBS affiliate.

 

 

 

Believe it or not!

There was lovely music coming from outside most of the day today - a steady gentle rain - only 1-2 thunderclaps and no wind. We got about 1.3” of rain, and the temperature was in the 70s most of the day. It was lovely!

Today was an unusual day. John and I went SHOPPING!!!! I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true. After his session at the Y, John went to WalMart for gas, sunflower seed, and underwear - and wound up having to shop to find the kind he wanted.

Later we went to check out the new Academy Sports store. He needed some new rowing shorts, and I wanted to look for another pair of cargo pants (they’re terrific for traveling). We found what we were looking for. Plus John found some cargo shorts (which he wears daily about 8 months of the year) on sale, so he could stock up.

This was truly an unusual day!
---------------------------------------------------
These photos show the pool deck and the cocktail lounge of Le Boreal.

 

 

Monday rolls around again.

John’s done something with his wrist. Fortunately, I had a wrist brace, so he has that on now. He won’t be rowing for a few days. He says he changed something in his grip on the oar, and that’s probably what caused the problem. I hope a few days’ rest helps.

I had really awful cards today, and managed to mostly misplay the few I did get. Oh, well…..

Sue’s mother-in-law had several stents put in a couple of weeks ago, and we went to the rehab facility for a brief visit after bridge. We were going to go to a local eatery that has Korean food, but when we got there, we found that they don’t have that kind of food any more. So we just came home to eat here.
---------------------------------------------------
This is my first shot of Le Boreal (our ship), and views of the cabin. We even had the chance to enjoy the robes provided.

 

 

 

Northern flowers

We’re finally getting some days next week with predicted highs in the 80s. That’s something we haven’t seen in a while.

I got another helmet liner knitted this weekend, and spent the afternoon watching a couple of Margaret O’Brien movies on TCM. I got to see part of The Canterville Ghost and all of Meet Me In St. Louis. Fun stuff.

Margaret and Tina came by. They were on their way to an estate sale - there was a lot of glass for sale. Margaret said she got a few things, but had fun in any case.
----------------------------------------
Summer flowers in northern climes are always lush, and those in Iceland were no exception. We noticed youngsters busy in the parks weeding the flowerbeds. We found out later that school-age children have different “jobs” during their summer vacations. Some work keeping up the municipal parks and flowerbeds, some work in museums (which we saw later), etc. We all thought it was a good to keep the kids busy, helping make their communities better.

 

 

 

Vikings

Very quiet day today - just working on photographs.

This is statue of Leif Ericsson in front of the Cathedral in Reykjavik.