2017 Project 365 – Week Five

We spent most of this week in North Carolina. So far, I love our new home & living so close to family. As you might expect, I’m back to my bad habit of posting way more than one picture per day. Don’t worry – that won’t happen every week!

Sunday, January 29^th      

We (meaning Dr. M), packed late into the evening.

Monday, January 30^th           

I just got one picture of the interior of the truck – looking pretty typical for us. We got a bigger truck than we really needed because it was the same price as the smaller one, and came with a ramp. If we'd had about four more people helping we probably could have filled it up. 

Dr. M set off down the road about 40 minutes before I did. He took these pictures. I was a good girl and did NOT try to take pictures. (Actually, I was so involved in my audio book that I barely knew I was driving. Oops!)

Tuesday, January 31^st                           

We signed the lease on the new house today & I took random photos of things that I found interesting – like the radio/cassette sound system (plays in the living area & the bedroom), and this super fabulous floor lamp!

Wednesday, February 1^st                   

We unloaded the truck today. Dr. M & my 76 year old father did most of the heavy lifting. (OK, they did ALL the heavy lifting). My dad’s a hoss! His new fiancé, Sue, helped a lot too!

I was feeling pretty pleased about being in NC instead of Ohio. When we were loading the truck on Sunday it was spitting snow! This was a nice change.

Thursday, February 2^nd   

Dr. M spent some time bird watching – female cardinal and male yellow bellied sap sucker. We LOVE this tree in our back yard! We’re about 99% sure that it’s a white oak, but we’ll see what its leaves tell us in the spring. I didn’t take a picture of it, but we have a nice deck where I think Dr. M will probably just live all the time.

Friday, February 3^rd      

We built a little fire in our fireplace. Dr. M is going to enjoy messing with it, since the fire pit went to the great pit in the sky.

Saturday, February 4^th         

We drove back to Ohio today. I almost wrote “home” – and I guess it still is for a few more weeks. I still love “Our Ohio.”

Hope everyone has a great week! (P.S. I haven’t read blogs in a while. We didn't have internet at the house, and very spotty cell reception. Hopefully I’ll get around to everyone sometime.)

2017 Project 365 – Week Four

I spent this week trying to check things off of my “before we move” checklist. I feel pretty accomplished, and yet still quite daunted by what we still have left to do. Just 5 more weeks & we’ll be in our new home!

Sunday, January 22^nd      

Woodpeckers love to hang out in the trees by our back fence.

I finished crocheting one of the borders on the Monster. This week I wove in the rest of the ends (6 months’ worth!) and started on the other border.

Monday, January 23^rd          

Cooper’s hawk just hanging out.

Tuesday, January 24^th                          

Dr. M called these guys Larry, Moe, & Curly. Ha!

I sent a card to our new president.

Wednesday, January 25^th                  

On my way home from work I took a picture of my favorite tree.

Thursday, January 26^th  

Female cardinals at twilight.

Friday, January 27^th     

I had breakfast with our former priest. When I got back out to my car I was just a wee bit chagrined. Here is what I said on Facebook: It's been a while since we had an edition of The Bug Parking Badly. I wish I had an excuse, but I don't...

White Winter Hymnal…

Saturday, January 28^th         

On Monday we’re taking a load of things down to NC, so today we picked up the truck. Tomorrow we get to load it up with a boatload of books and other things we don’t need here in Ohio. When we moved to this house 7 ½ years ago we culled a lot of our books. And this time we’re trying to be even more selective – especially since I rarely read an actual book these days, much preferring the convenience of having my book on my phone with me wherever I am. But although I’m giving away our Harry Potter books I’ve decided to keep my Dick Francis collection. My mom would get me his latest book every year. I just can’t get rid of them yet.  So they’re heading south again. Next week’s Project 365 will most likely open with pictures of the chaos in our house & the inside of the moving truck.

Have a great week everyone!

2017 Project 365 – Week Three

This past week is a bit of a blur (hence the need to start doing this weekly post again). Let’s see, what fascinating things happened!

Sunday, January 15^th     

Today Dr. M took a hilarious sequence of pictures. The light wasn’t great, so the quality isn’t the best, but here is the story. A squirrel hid a piece of corn in a hole on the tree. This woodpecker came along & decided it was a tasty treat & stole it. I know, not a riveting tale, but it made me laugh.

Monday, January 16^th          

We decided that with all the craziness going on in the world we needed to watch Foul Play for the millionth time. Also, I was crocheting a pink “pussy hat” while wearing pink fuzzy sheep pajamas.

Tuesday, January 17^th                          

I’ve decided to switch from my usual salad to having soup as an “appetizer” for lunch, so I pulled out my trusty soup thermos.

I canNOT believe I let my gas get this low! And in fact, by the time I got to the gas station it was down to 2 miles. Whew!

Wednesday, January 18^th                  

I started out making the cat ear hat with this fuzzy yarn but decided that it wasn’t really working for me. So I made a different hat with it. Hmmm.

Thursday, January 19^th  

Look! See that empty space on the shelf (where the one book is flopped over)? That’s what I’ve done to prepare for our move – there were some magazines there that I put into the recycle bin. Woot!

Friday, January 20^th     

Today I drove to Indianapolis to watch my gorgeous niece Jena in a cheer competition. See?

When we got there we had to sit in line for an hour and a half before they opened the doors. So I made a hat. I loved the sign in the hallway – since I could barely get myself down on the floor & then back up again, I’m pretty sure they didn’t need to tell me not to tumble. Oh, they were talking about the cheerleaders? If I can get a link to the video of the performance I’ll post it later this week.

P.S. See the guy behind me in the picture? I swear he looked just like Andy from WKRP in Cincinnati!

Saturday, January 21^st        

I stayed Friday night a little bit north of Indy & then drove up to have lunch at Ivanhoe’s Restaurant with my friend Rita from Meemaw Moments. Ivanhoe’s has 100 different types of ice cream sundaes! I had #44 (Heavenly Hash).  It was heavenly. We had a lovely visit and tried (unsuccessfully) to take selfies with the Garfield statue.

While I was doing that, millions of women and men were marching all over the world, in protest of the new administration, and in solidarity with the marginalized in our society. I had a couple of coworkers who marched in Cincinnati, including one who took her daughter, who was wearing the hat that I had made her.  I wasn’t too sure about the pussy hat business (I think maybe I’m a little too fusty for it), but I have to say that it did my heart good to see the hat I made on this little girl.

2017 Project 365 – Week Two

Oh man, we are still SO not into the swing of remembering to take pictures! This week is pretty lame, except for a few shots by Dr. M. Ah well, it’s only week two, so hopefully we’ll get a little better…

Sunday, January 8^th     

This was such a bittersweet day. It was our priest’s last service at our church. We had a big party for her that afternoon – I think we sent her off in style. Now we have to take the next steps without her. But I’m not sharing pictures from any of that. From Facebook: I don’t know why people keep laughing when they see me.

Monday, January 9^th          

The top of my head. Why yes, this photo WAS taken at almost 10:00 at night, why do you ask? Anyway, I keep thinking I’ll color my hair, but I sort of like the brindle look I’ve got going on here.

Tuesday, January 10^th                          

The moon! Thank goodness for the Moon Man so that we got a real picture!

Wednesday, January 11^th                  

Oh this is what sadness looks like. My old faithful coat, my boon companion for the last (at least) 16 Ohio winters, has finally started to disintegrate. And what might be even sadder is that I wore it for several days without realizing how bad the rip was (I thought I’d just caught the corner of the pocket & needed to sew it up). You see here pictures of the coat from happier times: Me dressing like the Ally Sheedy character from the Breakfast Club in 2006, and my “I don’t like winter” face from 2007.

Thursday, January 12^th  

Here we are again being rescued from tedium by Dr. M. Our back yard has been busy!

Friday, January 13^th     

I’ve been making these messy bun hats. Of course, I have no hair, but I think you get the idea of what’s supposed to happen. I had a little yarn mishap along the way.

Saturday, January 14^th       

Tomorrow is my first “solo” Vestry meeting (it’s my job to run them when we don’t have a priest). I also need to complete our annual Parochial report. It’s been sitting on my desk for a week now, and I did look through it once, but this is a task that I used to do with Mother Lynn (or rather, I helped her do it), and I feel a little pitiful doing it on my own this year. It’s hard to believe that she’s gone, and in just over a month I’ll be gone too. I believe that my church will survive quite nicely without us, but it will be hard for a little while. Don’t suppose any of you want to move to Xenia & join the Altar Guild?

Blanket Tuesday

I finished afghan #3 over the weekend & realized that I'd never shared a photo of the 2nd blanket. So, without further ado:

The temperature monster is still on hold while I wait for more yarn. Stay tuned!

2017 Project 365 – Week One

Here we go again. After one year off from Project 365 (one-ish picture a day for 365 days) I decided that I need to do it because I don’t journal and who the heck knows what happened when, if you don’t journal? But after so long without having to remember to take a picture every day I had to put a reminder on my phone. Which is why most of these pictures are in the evening after the reminder goes off.

But first, a brief note about why we’re moving. We made the decision after our Thanksgiving visit to our fathers. We felt a strong need to move closer to Dr. M’s father, in particular. He is in his 80s and needs both of his sons to be there to support him. And because I am able to keep my same job and work from a home office we thought this was the right time to go. I’m pretty excited about it, although I feel like the Old North State is mocking us with the 6 – 9 inches of snow they got overnight. What the heck NC – minimal snow was going to be a perk of moving back home! So there, you have the rest of the story. Now, onward to my week…

Sunday, January 1^st     

The temperature monster. It's not done. I have two rows to go (ran out of purple), and a gazillion ends to weave in. But I couldn't wait to measure it. With the border (just doing the sides), it's going to be a little over 9 feet by 5 feet. Whew! The second picture is a sample of what the border will look like.

Monday, January 2^nd           

Working a jigsaw puzzle on my new iPad. Remember how I got the wrong one last year? Whoa – this is SO MUCH BETTER! We’re still using the old one to play music (listening to the Melody Gardot station on Pandora right now while I’m writing this).

Tuesday, January 3^rd                          

Dr. M has been doing a lot of reading since Christmas. It’s so cozy – I listen to an audio book & crochet & sneak & take pictures of him reading.

Wednesday, January 4^th                  

Random shot of the sun while I ran errands. That’s my church to the left (the town clock tower is in the middle of the photo).

Thursday, January 5^th  

We got a cute little snow today – just three inches.

Friday, January 6^th     

Ms. Pinky and Ms. Rita at dusk. Yes, they’ll be heading to NC with us.

Saturday, January 7^th       

The Penguin of the Lord! And if you look closely, you can see the golden fleece…

Facebook Status

Just heard on my audio book: "Someone once said, no one really wants an afghan." Meanwhile, I'm working on an afghan.

Monday Miscellany

I forgot it was Monday because I had the day off. And, actually, it's a wonder I went to church yesterday because, really, I've had no clue when and where I am. I haven't worked since December 22nd. This must be how being retired feels... So, in keeping with the random that is my brain today, here is a list:

1. Go check out Dr. M's last post here. It has sheep (Gasp! I know!), and cows, and birds seen at my dad's house, and hilarious captions.

2. We found a house to rent while we were in NC over Christmas. It's not quite, but almost exactly between my dad and Dr. M's dad, in a little subdivision, but in the country. There's a gas station not too far away, but it's almost 10 miles to a grocery store, fast food, or pizza. That will take some getting used to! I think Dr. M plans to do a lot of cooking (I HOPE Dr. M plans to do a lot of cooking!).

3. We plan to be moved by the end of February.  That little sentence is quite exhausting. I'll just move on to the next item.

4. There is no next item. Oh, yes - I'm sort of close to being done with the temperature monster, but not really. I only have two more rows to crochet (ran out of purple). but I still need to weave in a gazillion ends and then do the border. I'll post a picture of it later because...

5. I'm doing Project 365 again next year! And I just this minute realized that I haven't taken a picture yet today... So, I guess I'm done with this post & off to find a subject worthy of photography.

Later!