a camping we will go......

I hate camping, I've gone a couple of times when I was younger and tolerated sleeping on the ground and peeing in the woods... but of course there was alcohol and mood altering medications involved. Camping these days? Not so much... roughing it has become a hotel without room service. No kidding... my friends will tell you what a queen I am. So what's this leading to? I'm going to camp... even as a kid I never went to sleep-away camp.... there was day camp, but that doesn't count. So Bob and I are going to a Hungarian Heritage camp located at a lodge in the mountains of Pennsylvania. There we will learn the language (for me a review and for Bob actually learning), and spend some with with other cultural activities. Should be interesting. I've checked the Penn Scenic View site and there are air conditioned lodges and because we're going as a married couple, we get a private room (how nice), but still not sure on the private bathroom... I just might be schleping down the hall in the middle of the night... better stop drinking that water. This is what I'm packing...... i-Pod, books, knitting, a fan for the room (just in case the air conditioning doesn't work), candles, flashlight (to get to the bathroom), bug spray, my pillow, and my altered book for taking notes and journaling. Well yes, I'm taking clothes, but that goes without saying. My friends will be disappointed if I don't bring home lanyards and pot holders and bird houses made from popsicle sticks. I'll try.

iGadgets....

Yes, we got the iPhones... and new iMacs as well.... of course it has to go along with the new iPod I got a couple of weeks back. So what is this iMania? maybe it has to do with getting the latest and greatest of the Apple gadgets, or just our little way of trying to stay connected with the iWorld, in any case, it certainly is lots of iFun.

Bob had been stalking the manager of our local AT&T store to be on the list when the iPhones came in. Unfortunately our local store wound up not getting any phones on the Friday release date, but we made the trip to the Apple store later that night... about 10pm and there was no line, and more salespeople in the store than customers. Good for us. Activating the iPhones was not a huge problem.... but synching them was. Our computer wasn't equipped with the latest USB and no connection could be made. After a week or so of waiting for the upgrade, Bob plugged it in and the whole system failed.... oh just great. Another week being told we lost all data.... interject where I become hysterical thinking I lost all my photos...... and then finally giving in and getting a new iMac... (huge 24" screen thank you) and finding out that data was all recovered... thank the tech gods....

Now my iPhone is working wonderfully and I have become the tech idol of all those around me.... but this wonderous new computer has once again lost my data. All bookmarks gone, all stickies gone, all photos gone, all saved documents from Word gone, etc.. etc... Bob thinks they are in the computer somewhere.... so another trip to the Apple store and a consult with the mac tech gods should produce the data.... I'm hoping and praying..

The Glacier of it all..

While I'm reading through my latest scrap mag, I come across a full page for an Alaskan cruise. Ordinarily I would pass it by since the only cruises I have interests in are those where palm trees sway and ocean breezes are warm and balmy, not cold and frozen. But this one strikes my eye because Tim Holtz is sponsoring it and holding workshops on it . Ok now I'm interested. So just in conversation I tell DH, and he says, "is that the guy from Club Scrap and the one you keep talking about from CKU?" and continues on, "Looks like it's right on Mother's Day and your birthday, so let's go". WHAT? Of course I'm freaked and call for reservations right away, just in case he changes his mind... lol. So next year I'll be turning 54 somewhere up in our 49th state. How "cool" is that?

A memorable weekend

it was this past weekend being both Mother's Day and my birthday. We decided to drive out to DC to visit Alex, after all he is the one that made me being a mother possible. On the way down we stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast and picked up a couple of audio books.... David Balducci's the Camel Club and the Collectors. Both are set in DC and concern government spy agencies. Nothing like driving through the streets of Georgetown and thinking.... "oooh that's where they hid the boat" or "That's Roosevelt Island where the murder was committed".
On Friday, Bob and Alex took the Metro into the city and went to the Spy Museum (how fitting) while I took the credit cards and went shopping. I can't do the kind of walking that these guys were about to do. Alex also took Bob to his office at NYRA and showed him around. Dinner was in Silver Spring at a newly opened Piratz Tavern with interesting decor, garbed staff and mugs of grog.
Saturday we decided to go to Old Town Alexandria for breakfast, but by the time we got there couldn't find a place that served breakfast, so it was lunch instead. We walked a little and shopped a little and then drove out to Mt. Vernon. I was there 40 years ago and was trying to remember how things were different. Somehow it seemed smaller.. will have to dig out those pictures from 1968. Dinner was back in Alexandria at a French restaurant where I had delighted in one of my favorite appetizers, escargot. Then back into DC to see a play, Peter and Wendy, the story told with music, puppets and a very talented main actor/storyteller who did all the characters. Sunday, church, brunch in DC and then back to Alex's house for an afternoon of cards and board games. Of all the things we did, just being with Alex and talking and laughing was the best Mother's Gift of all.

Out of my Scrapping Shell

I just recently decided that if others can get published with their work, why can't I? So I took the leap of faith and submitted some work to a couple of magazines for publication. I'm not even mentioning it on any of my boards or to any of my friends.. don't want to jinx it.. and in case I don't make it, I've got nothing ventured. Finally have the courage to step outside my comfort zone... when I was working, I never had the time so now there's no excuse. So wish me luck... cross something... as I step over that ledge.

Scrap worthy?

Bob goes in for surgery on Friday. After a run to the ER last weekend and numerous visits to the doctor's and with x-rays and scans out with wazoo, it was determined that the gallbladder must come out. So what's the point of having one to begin with? Now I feel sorry for him, of course and I'll be there to nurse him back to health... but when the surgery was first scheduled for next week, I went ahead and sent a check in for a crop for Saturday.. one I'd been looking forward to going to... and now I'll be spending the day running up and down the stairs...waiting on him hand and foot. Hopefully he'll be so drugged, he won't need me that much and he'll sleep all day. Actually I asked the surgeon yesterday if I could get some pain meds too knowing what a bad patient Bob really is.

I might just pack up some stuff and take it to the hospital with me.... I've got scissors and a hemostat and fibers... I could do a little scrapbook operation while there.

Counter Attack

I have waited long enough for new granite kitchen counters in this house and last week Friday was the day. It's a granite composite.. looks and feels and walks and talks just like slab granite, only costs less and they don't have to rip out the existing counters, this just gets laid over it. Should be an easy breezy install....

They were here to cut the template last month, so all the pieces for the counter, back splash, cook top, and edge were done and ready to install. So in preparation, we had both plumber and electrician out the day before to disconnect the sink, cook top, under counter lights, etc etc... We were ready to go!

The guy came out and went right to work.... the first piece went in... ooohhh LOVE it... can't wait to see the rest. Now since half my kitchen including the sink is in the dining room and the other half is in the office and laundry room... I went to scrapbook and stay out of the way... (did I mention the glue???? talk about getting a "high"). So I periodically go and check the progress and find that right down the middle of the most visible part of the counter, where two pieces will be seamed together, the granite doesn't match.... the color is off... one side lighter than the other. Now I wouldn't have minded if the back splash were a little off, or the cook top from the counter, not a big difference.... but right smack dab in the middle. "This is not acceptable", I say, "You better call your people about this". Well apparently the granite was cut from two separate pieces and the cutters didn't look closely enough to see the difference... but being an artist, I noticed that immediately.

So it is being replaced.... but in the meantime... no sink, no disposal, no cooktop, no dishwasher..... and my house is in chaos! I just need to be patient until Monday when the new piece comes.... and you bet I'll have my magnifying glass in hand.