I'm a yarn whore...

Oops, I did it again! No, I didn't shave my head ;) I bought more yarn! OMG, I have such an obsession with it! This past winter, I started branching out from my afghans and bought some books on how to make crochet scarves. I've now made maybe 8-10 of them, and they were (if I do say so myself) kind of a hit! I gave a few to my mom while we were in Europe (where else would someone from FL use a scarf??) and I wore a few there myself. We both got loads of compliments on them... Mom told me that she got more compliments when she got back to PA, so now my head has swelled :) Anyway, what I did AGAIN was to buy up yarn at Big Lots. Yes, I said BIG LOTS! Chris and I were there a few months ago (before Christmas) and they had all kinds of yarn that they had bought up from some distributor and were selling it (name brand stuff like Lion Brand, Bernat, Patons, etc) for $1-$2. I bought it up like crazy. Well, yesterday we were out and near the Big Lots so after we ran some other errands I requested a Big Lots stop, hoping that maybe they would have more/different yarn, but thinking that the chances were slim. After all, Big Lots is a close-out store, and they get what they get and usually you don't find the same thing there twice. Well, I got to the area (near the greeting cards) where I found yarn before, and they still had some. I assumed that it was the same kind that I bought up on before, but went to check to be sure. I was wrong! Yes, there were some that I had seen before, but there were LOADS of new kinds too! So, I showed them to Chris, and he agreed that I should buy up on this too. The same yarn I found there is sold in JoAnns and Michaels for anywhere between $5 and $8 a skein, depending on what brand and type.

Here is a few scarves that I made before... I really should take pictures of the others that I made that I still have.

I'm getting a free haircut!

As I write this, I'm "fighting" with my bird because he is wanting to give me a free haircut. He loves to preen my hair. He nibbles off the ends when I'm not paying attention and when I finally catch on to what he's doing and pull him away, he lunges at me and grabs another clump of hair in his beak and trims away. Normally I wouldn't mind a free haircut, but in my opinion, Franco is only concerned with the clump he is currently working on, and does not have a vision of what the final cut will look like. I've now put him on the desk, and he's working on shreading up some travel notes that I took for an upcoming trip. He's such a busy bird!

Nothing else is really new, that's why you're hearing the tales of Franco ;) Have a good week!

I’m old and out of shape!

Yes, I have discussed getting older this year. Yes, I know it is lame to complain again. But, here I sit, two days after working in our garden and I’m sore. Seriously. My arms, my quads, my hammies, my abs. I’m sore. I’m out of shape and it is sad.

Saturday I took on a “chore” that I actually enjoy. We bought new rose bushes and hibiscus plants to put in our flower beds around our house. There were some failed attempts at starting up some hibiscus from a mail order company, but those little guys weren’t very mature, and I think our dry winter did them in. So, I dug them up (that wasn’t hard, they were pretty small) and replaced them with more mature plants that we bought on sale at Lowe’s. Good deal! I also weeded the beds and pulled up some other plants from the previous owners that either irritated me (some things grow like crazy here and are impossible to control) and others weren’t doing so well. The up and down was a good bit of work, but I felt good.

Then, I had a great idea. I saved one hibiscus (a larger one) to put in our back yard along with the new rose bushes. We had 10 small rose bushes to plant, and I decided that I would finally uproot these monster plants in our back yard. I have no clue what these things are called. They’re gynormous green plants that sprout clusters of tiny purple flowers that the bumble bees (those big fuzzy guys) seem to looooove. Eventually, these plants have orange-y berries on them too. Oh, they’re awful. I hacked them back in the summer this past year, and when I waged war on them again this past weekend, they were thick and as tall as the gutter on our garage (in some places). I should say first that I uprooted two of these buggers in our front yard. They were on either side of our steps to our porch. They weren’t quite monsters… I’ve hacked those down a number of times and the other bushes have engulfed them, so they were (relatively) easy to uproot. The ones in the back? Not so much. It took me forever to get them up. There were a total of four plants. Two HUGE ones and two medium size ones. I first chopped them down from their tall height to about two foot tall, so there was less to deal with. The pile of cuttings took over about a 6’ x 6’ area of our yard! I was able to get the first of the huge ones up and out of the ground after I removed a smaller one first. Even the smaller one was pain. I used a shovel to dig it up and then used a pruning tool to cut the thick roots so at least I could get up the main root ball. Ugh. Did the same thing with the first big one but it was nowhere near as easy. Pulling and shoving and everything else. Oh my! Finally I got it up with most of the roots after about an hour. I then ripped up the smaller of the two remaining and rested for a bit. I puttered with getting the roses ready to be planted and cleaned up some of my other mess, repotted some violets and the such until Chris returned from running some errands.

Chris has a lot of experience with doing lawn type stuff. His dad owns his own landscaping company and Chris used to help out when he was a kid/teen. He was a maniac. Within about 10 minutes he had the final massive root ball up. Then, he showed me how to swing a pick axe correctly to break up the remaining roots and till the soil. Wow, I’m so out of shape. I went gang busting on the little garden! Now I’m paying for it. I should have stretched first or something. Anyway, in the end I have a pretty little 10’ x 4’ (or so) rose garden. I’m hoping to plant some bulbs this coming weekend to finish it off. We already put down the mesh and mulch, so I’ll just cut through the mesh to plant a few bulbs. Too pretty, but wow, I’m sore!

Not much new...

I was waiting until something interesting would happen this week to write about and share on my blog, but nothing has happened that is blog-worthy. Hmph.

In my boring news, this should be a relaxing weekend... I'm looking forward to some outdoor fun tomorrow. I bought some new roses and hibiscus for our gardens and a bunch of new violets for inside the house (I have a "mild" obsession...). Hopefully I'll finally get to going through boxes of old decorations and getting rid of what I haven't unpacked since I left Seattle and reuniting myself with some things that I've long since forgotten about. I'm sure I'll find a treasure or two that I'll want to hold on to ;)

I'll write again when there is something a little more interesting to write about...

Another Year Passes...

This past Saturday night I coughed, sneezed and sniffled my way into starting my 32nd year on this planet. I celebrated my 31st birthday.

Actually, it wasn't as bad as that. To be honest, it was really pretty great. Chris really made me feel so special this past weekend. He's such a great guy! :)

After a hair appointment (ha - got my "hair did"), Chris and I checked into Coronado Springs at Disney. There, he asked if I wanted a "January 27th present" (being that my birthday is actually the 28th). I said yes, as long as I would still have something to open (even if it was the card) the next day. He said he had a few things for me, so I opened gift #1, large garnet earrings - YAY! I had told him I wanted garnets (my birthstone) for a while.

We then went to Victoria and Albert's (Disney's highest of the high end restaurants) for dinner. The meal was amazing. Really. 6 courses and they printed menus specially for us with our names as keepsakes of our special evening. Mine even said "Happy 31st Birthday!" We had all kinds of interesting food from buffalo to elk to quail. YUM!

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel room for a quick change and friends of ours (Anna and Dimitri) met up with us for some fun at Pleasure Island. Nothing too crazy, just a couple of beers, live band and some snarky comments between us girls as we marvled at the clothes that "young girls wear these days", reminiscing about our younger days and going to clubs and parties. I would put on a pair of BAGGY jeans, my cleanest white t-shirt and my BEST flannel shirt... add a pair of Doc Martins, and I was good to go! The girls we saw were all wearing backless, deep v shirts with boobage overflow, miniskirts, THIGH high spike heel boots and flat-ironed hair. Ew.

Sunday was fun as well. Chris gave me my other presents of cushy crochet hooks, knitting looms, a super large pen (was cute) and my ultimate gift, a new Michael Kors hobo bag - yay! We spent the day at Magic Kingdom, with me wearing a button that they gave me for my birthday. All day long people were saying "Happy Birthday" to me. It was fun.

Here are some photos to compare.

This is what 30 looks like:

This is 31:


I don't see much of a difference, do you?

Despite all the fun, I'm still battling a cold. Not sure what's up with it... runny nose, headache, sore throat and cough. I'm also losing my voice (I hope Chris isn't too happy about that! :)

I have a new friend - a dolphin named Lester!

Chris and I FINALLY redeemed the gift card that he gave me for my 30th birthday last year. Just in time, right? I mean, it isn't like my bday is now less than a week away! ;) Anyway, he bought me a gift card to go to Discovery Cove (http://www.discoverycove.com) here in Orlando. Discovery Cove is a small park owned by the Sea World folks (or maybe just affiliated with Sea World...) where you can have interactions with many different kinds of marine and bird life. The focus point of the day was our swim with a dolphin. When you arrive, you are assigned your dolphin swim time for the day and you end up breaking up into groups of about 8 for a dolphin interaction. Lester was a thirtysomething dolphin (kind of an old guy by dolphin standards) and was short and stocky. WOW, it was like I was meant to be his friend! :) He did a few tricks for us, "talking" on command, waving to us with his flippers and tail, letting us give him a "dolphin carwash" (where he swims by you and you get to rub him down). He posed with us for still photos as well as photos with us kissing him on his bumpy snout. The best part of the visit was him allowing us to swim with him. One hand on his dorsal fin, and one hand on his flipper and he swam us about 100 or so yards. It was way too cool.



Above: Me and Lester taking a swim

Below: All of the dolphins in our session... Lester is on the far right.




Also at the park we swam with and fed stingrays. Their barbs are cut so there is no risk of injury to the human visitors (it isn't painful, kinda like cutting your fingernails). They also had a coral reef where we got to swim around and see all kinds of fish and more rays (devil rays that weren't with the stingrays). They had a resort pool that was 85 degrees (which was great because it didn't quite reach 70 on Saturday when we were there - we were wearing full wetsuits, but it was still a bit chilly) and a warm lazy river to enjoy. The final part that they had was a bird interaction area where you could feed all kinds of interesting birds, big and small. We went in twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Some of the birds were really huge, but I think my favorite was the small bird area. A little "mouse bird" from South Africa stole my heart. His name was Captain Jack and was the sweetest little thing. I fed him and he curled up in my hand and took a nap. Too cute! I just hope Franco isn't jealous :)

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to Sea World for a day. It was great. I have to say I was very impressed. I'm usually quite a Disney snob, but Sea World really exceeded my expectations. So much so that we upgraded our day pass to an annual pass! I can't wait to go back!

First post on Google Blogger

Ok, so I guess I'm about to finally admit that I am a "thirtysomething". Wow, that sounds old for some reason, but in just over a week I'll be 31. No longer a magical 30 or "in my twenties". 31. Blech. Ah well. Moving on.

I'm home from work today. Not really by choice. Well, I guess by choice. I mean, I could have gone to work in what I would term "agony" for the day. I have (yet another) UTI. Ick. Ouch. I'm finally able to sit comfortably for a little while this afternoon. I'm on the mend though. One round of daily antibiotics in me already and pizza tonight for dinner and I should be fine to go to work tomorrow :) Moving on again...

Chris and I are back and adjusted again to life in Florida after our amazing trip to London and Paris with Adventures By Disney - Land of Eternal Knights trip. If you ever have the opportunity, I HIGHLY recommend it. The trip was wonderful. From the time we were wisked away from the Gatwick airport by a guy in a $500 suit driving a Mercedes S class private car, we knew we were in for a trip of a lifetime! We got to see all of the great sites of each city... Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Harod's Department Store, Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre, The London Eye, the Tower of London (and my favorite, the crown jewels!), Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysees, Disneyland Paris, Chateau de Versailles, dinner AT the Eiffle Tower and the Louve! We've finally gotten all of our photos up on Kodak Gallery. Now to decide which to print for albums.