New Hobby

 


I took a couple of beading classes in MN and fell in love.  It's easy to do in front of the TV (unlike scrapbooking, I need lots of space while I'm working), and the results are gorgeous.  Plus I love jewelry that coordinates with my outfits.

Small Domesticities

Yesterday, we finally got around to folding our way down Mount Laundry.  There was a pair of shorts in there as well as several sets of summer-weight pajamas. 

While we folded, Blair and I watched The Holiday on Tivo.  It was a very sweet romantic comedy and we enjoyed it very much.  The laundry was completely folded in time to watch the last half hour our so without our hands full.  Daniel came home from school towards the end and we all watched the last bit together, then put the clothes away.  Maybe it was the after-effects of watching the last scene, in which a family happily celebrated the new year, but I had a smile on my face the whole time we changed the sheets (so much easier to put the clean sheets right on the bed rather than fiddling with folding them up, don't you agree?) and put the rest of the laundry away.

Here's a photo of Daniel's finished pumpkin.  He worked on it for a couple of days after the party - very dedicated to getting it just right.

Fall Fun

The garage is still set up, so we ran the tag sale again this week.  Friday was an ideal fall day for a tag sale, cool, but clear and nice, and although Saturday was dreary and rainy, plenty of folks stopped by.  It's funny how you can have plenty of traffic and sell plenty of stuff, and yet, the garage doesn't look cleared out at all.

We sold the kitchen cabinets, so that cleared out some space in the garage - and the living room.  I think we'll have space to have a Christmas tree this year - yippee!  We'll put the files we need to keep into the basement, and we'll actually have a living room again after nearly a year.

Today we spent the afternoon at the home of some dear friends for their traditional pumpkin carving party.  It was perfect weather to have the party outdoors, where spilt pumpkin guts are no problem at all!  There was a lot of terrific food (loved the mummy finger hot dogs), delicious desserts, jello shots and Godiva chocolate liqueur.  Towards evening, the kids were gathering leaves into piles for jumping while the adults sat around a roaring fire enjoying each others' company.

Daniel decided to carve the Family Guy's Stewie on his pumpkin.  It's almost 8 and he's still working on it.  He was working very carefully on it for hours at the party - first poking holes around the outline, then carving out a few of the details, and now he's painstakingly scraping away at the skin of the pumpkin for Stewie's face and other details.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Tag Sale Redux

Since the garage is still all set up, we're continuing the tag sale this coming weekend (we decided to pass on having a tag sale during the nor-easter last weekend, just call us wimps!)

Lots of great scrapbooking supplies are still left, books, Disney videos, Easton Press books, Danbury MInt collectibles.

Favorite Tag Sale Customers

Friday was slow with the bad weather, but things picked up on Saturday. It's amazing though, how you can a have a good sale and bring in a nice piece of change, but still have a garage full of unsold items!

On Saturday morning we had a couple stop by who became our favorite customers. They were very nicely dressed, the wife in an elegant ivory skirt, blouse and jacket, husband in an ivory dress shirt with a tie. It turned out they were visiting from North Carolina and were on their way to a wedding, but had to stop when they saw our sale. The wife is a painter, so she was interested in the craft supplies. They were in a hurry to get to the ceremony, so they couldn't stay long. But they came back by on their way to the reception. Now that's a pair of dedicated tag salers!

Things I Never Thought I'd Say...

"Oh look, the sister is passing out knives for the kids to play with"

Daniel went to his first meeting of the Society of Young Magicians yesterday. A magician named Tony Clark did some tricks and showed the kids how to do them. Dan was very quiet but said later that he'd had a good time and was glad we'd signed him up. It seems like a cool group, they have a lending library of books and videos, and he was talking with some of the kids during the snack break.

One of the tricks Tony showed them was how to "swallow" a knife. So during the break, a nun (the meeting was held at Villa Maria) was handing out plastic knives so the kids could try the trick for themselves.

Afterwards, we met Blair's family for lunch with his aunt and her granddaughter's soon to be in-laws at V a restaurant in Westport. I had some really yummy butternut squash ravioli. Oh, man it was delicious and the company was lovely.

A Busy Few Weeks

My project on Minnesota finished up a few weeks ago, and life's been a blur ever since. Blair flew out on Monday, September 21, and he was supposed to change planes in Atlanta - yup, during the torrential rains that were causing all the trouble. He managed to switch to a direct flight (for no extra charge!) and ended up getting to Minneapolis earlier than he would have.

We packed up all my stuff on Tuesday (I couldn't have done it without him) and on Wednesday got a hitch for the van, rented a trailer and met up with some movers to get us loaded up. Bright and early Thursday morning we hit the road. We decided to take 3 days to make the trip (I only took 2 on the way out) because we weren't sure how fast we'd be able to drive with the trailer. It's amazing how much slower you appear to be driving when you can see so much further ahead.

As we tooled down the arrow straight highway in Wisconsin, I mentioned to Blair that I'd always wanted to see Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright house built over a waterfall, but wasn't sure where it was. That night in our hotel in Elkart, Indiana, I googled it and was thrilled to find it was in Western Pennsylvania, an easy detour from our planned route. We made new hotel reservations, and bought tickets (have I ever mentioned how much I love the Internet?)

Unfortunately, I bought our tickets for the wrong day. Fortunately, they got us onto a tour anyway, despite being overrun with Australian dignitaries from the summit. The tour was definitely worth the detour, and the house was as all-out cool as I'd expected.

As we drove home, we called Daniel as we crossed each state line. Sometimes, we left goofy voicemails, and sometimes we had a nice chat. We had Dumbledore's car seat bungeed just behind and right between our seats and he seemed very comfortable there. We were glad it was cool and rainy during our tour, since we had no qualms about leaving him in the car. During the last day, I took the strap that hooks his harness to his seat, and hooked it to my seatbelt, so he could sit on my lap. He's an awfully good cuddler.

The only traffic during the whole trip was getting from New Jersey to the Bronx on Rt 95 (and the GW Bridge), and we arrive home around 10pm on Saturday. Daniel had been staying with my folks, and my dad dropped him off that afternoon to wait for us, so our boy was there when we walked in!

Dumble has been unsettled by this, from the time we started packing, he got very clingy and doesn't like to let me out of his site. If I go to my bedroom for a moment, he has to follow me to make sure I don't start packing again. And I'm not sure he can tell the difference between packing and unpacking.

I'm so very glad to be home with my guys. Next step is to update the old resume and dive into another job search. Hopefully, the next is a bit closer to home!