Night pictures of Vegas

Here are some "bright with lights" pictures that turned out pretty decent. This first picture is of the Bellagio and its "lake" in front of it.



Here's "Paris." I don't know much about the history, and we didn't go inside or up, but it's pretty cool looking. :)



This is the fountain/pool/volcano at the Mirage. The volcano wasn't that impressive during its show, but all the waterfalls and the foliage were absolutely beautiful.



And finally, here's our hotel at night. Almost like Disneyland on the outside.

Our second nephew!

Yesterday, Wendell and Ann's second son was born, Isaac Arnold. As soon as I get pictures and their permission, I'll post them. He was 8.5 pounds and 21" long. He has a little bit of fluid on his lungs, but he got to go home yesterday and will see the doctor again today. Mom is doing great too.

Dave Chihuly exhibit

John's conference was at the Bellagio. They had a Dave Chihuly exhibit in the lobby.



The glass pieces were in a recessed part of the ceiling. I leaned back in the benches underneath the exhibit so I could look up and soak in the beauty. Very cool.

New York New York

Across the street from Excalibur is the New York New York Hotel. It has a city line of New York City, and a roller coaster travelling along the edge.



I convinced John to go on the roller coaster with me, and we both had a blast. It has two big drops, a loop, a sideways twist, and a corkscrew. Pretty fun.



It even has the Statue of Liberty.

Rainforest Cafe at MGM Grand

This is a cool cafe/gift shop at the MGM Grand (kitty corner to Excalibur). They have several of these fish columns, and the ceiling is covered in greenery and stuffed animals and birds to give the rainforest feel. It even thunders with light flashes.



Here you can see someone cleaning the "coral." The pictures turned out a little fuzzy.



They also had an animatronic crocodile in a field of mist that growled and opened its jaws. Pretty neat.

Cool pool

There was a nice pool at the hotel. This is the view from our window.


At the end of the pool was a very nice waterfall. John's standing on a bridge over it.


And I'm on the other side.

Las Vegas

We just came back from a trip to Las Vegas! John attended a conference for work, and I got to tag along for fun. It was both our first time there.

Over the next several days I'll share some pictures. Today's picture is of us standing in front of a sign for our hotel. It's on The Strip at the south end. John's conference was at the Bellagio, one mile walk away.

New flowers

Before

After



Over the weekend we bought some pansies and planted them in the front walk. The petunias were too overgrown.

Another project finished

Here's another project I finished recently. I created and stitched the Hardanger design for my cousin and her new husband. It's really hard keeping all these secret projects hidden!

The quilt is done!

I finished my parents' quilt last week, and my Dad hung it on the wall. I'm so excited to have finished it. :)

Macy wanted to help quilt

While I've been working on my parents' quilt, Macy has been eager to help. Anytime I set it down she tries to crawl under it. Here I set it up for her perfect haven.

My next project

I get to make another quilt! I'm so excited!

I love these bright rainbow colors. The balloon print is for the backing, and the block print (on the right) is for the borders. I'll take progess pictures as I go along. I'll starting washing the fabrics as soon as I get my parents' quilt done, which might be today. Yeah!

One project finished

I'm so proud to announce this cross-stitch project is finished. I started it in 1999 and finished the stitching of it last year. I got it framed when we got our house so we could hang it as our first picture. Even though it's for Christmas, I've worked so hard on it that we're keeping it out this year until then, and then we'll put it away.




Here's a close up.



I really enjoyed working on this Santa because of the bright joyful and cozy Christmas colors. My only regret is starting it on Aida. I'm doing all my future projects on linen.

I LOVE school supplies!

Every fall I long to buy fresh new school supplies, especially in bright colors. This year John's work had a donate school supplies thing, so I got to go shopping! I had an absolute blast! I found these cool folders, and I love the colors.

Lots of roses

Today I picked roses from OUR rose bushes. There were lots to chose from. They even smell pretty nice.

Quilt

Here are the promised pictures.

The third picture shows the detail of one of the Hardanger squares. It is stitched with ivory thread and has a light beige behind it.

I have the middle part of the quilt quilted. All I have left to do is finish quilting, tie the threads on the back, and do the binding (which I'm scared to do - I don't quite understand the instructions I've read about it yet). Tomorrow I'm going with my Mom to her chemo treatment that lasts all day, so I'm taking the quilt to hand tie the threads on the back. It will help to get all those hidden as it looks like a mess right now!

I plan to have it all finished by the end of the month.

Finally! I get to share with you...

A year and a half ago I started a quilt with 5 Hardanger squares for my parents' 30th anniversary that was this week. I couldn't post any progress pictures because it was a secret! But tonight I presented an almost finished quilt to them, so I can now post about it. Yeah!

However, it will have to wait one more day because I'm very tired. Time for bed!

Lots of veggies

Today I picked 14 pounds of vegetables, 11 of which were tomatoes! I couldn't believe it! The other vegetables are cucumber, zucchini, some of our first corn, onions, and anaheim peppers. We're making a huge batch of salsa tomorrow. Weee!

Our fish

Here's a picture of our fish in our pond out front. We have two black goldfish, two red/orange goldfish, and three koi. I'd like to name them, but I'm having trouble picking names. I thought it'd be cool to name the four goldfish with G names, and the three koi with K names. From the personalities, the two darker koi are male, and the yellow one is female, at least that's what I think. The goldfish could be either sex; they don't have much personality to determine it; maybe they're really high-tech plastic android fish?

Can anyone give me some ideas for names?

Thirty years

Today is my parents' 30th year anniversary. Hooray for them!

My Brother-In-Law

Meet Tim, John's younger brother. This picture is a little older, but I wanted to post it because it was taken from the bridge over the river that's really close to our house. This was after we made the offer on the house, but before we got the keys. Tim came to town for a short visit and to see the house. Then we took a walk to the river.

This was also before his trip to Brasil where he met a special friend of the female persuasion. Take a look at his blog for some pictures of Edneia (pronounced Esh-ney-a; sorry, Tim, if I didn't get that quite right) and Brasil. He was very excited to talk about her, and we're very excited to hear about her. He also talked about looking at house prices down there. Sounds like I need to get my passport ready for a Brasil trip!

Less than two weeks left of school

This summer I'm taking an online accounting class at the community college. It's almost over! Yeah! John said he's looking forward to the class being finished because than I can start unpacking boxes. While I have gone through a few boxes, it is true I haven't made much progress because I've tried to focus on school. And it's paid off because so far I'm getting an A. Yeah!

Macy loves her sun spots!

Isn't she cute?

See how our corn has grown!

You can see how much our corn grew in first few weeks we were in our new house. It was so nice to have a garden started! We've already enjoyed several zucchini, cucumbers, and John made a yummy salsa from the cilantro, onions, tomatoes, and anaheim and jalapeno peppers, all from our garden!

Cuddling picture

Okay, okay, here are some pictures.

First, meet John and Macy. Macy is very picky about her cuddle time. When she decides to cuddle, you just can't say no.

Lots of work to do

We've been in our house almost a week now. There's lots of work to be done! It's so exciting, so overwhelming, and so tiring all at the same time. We're getting everything moved this weekend, then we can start to settle in. I can't wait to organize and decorate my craft room. I'm also excited to pick out paint colors, although that is one of the most overwhelming things on the list.

We are so grateful to our family that has helped us move all our stuff. With my husband not being able to lift more than ten pounds after his back surgery, we really appreciate all the hours and sore muscles they have sacrificed. Thanks guys!

It's finally here!

Today's the day we get the keys to the house. Last week we were counting down the days, and Friday we started counting the hours. The deadline is 5 pm tonight, but if the owner's get done moving out their stuff, then it might be earlier.

The homeowner has agreed to do a walk-through with us to show us operating procedures, like for the sprinkler system and hot tub.

We get to spend a week cleaning and doing any kind of fixing, painting, or personalizing before we have our movers come help us. And by movers, I mean family. :)

We're so excited!

Fun animal quiz

You're a Donkey!

Loyal and helpful, you are capable of carrying heavy loads for
others. At the same time, you're a bit ornery about being asked to do things and can
sometimes be a real, well, you know. Regardless, many see you only for what they can
get you to do rather than actual personality attributes you might have. Some media
influences make you seem very funny, while others have made people think it would be
a horrible punishment to end up like you. When you were young, you always seemed to
end up getting hurt at birthday parties.


Take the Animal Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Fun Sesame Street quiz

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

We're getting a house!

Yeah! We finally found a house we love, and we're in the middle of the process of buying it! In less than a month, we'll be in our very own home.

As the date comes closer, I get more excited! Yesterday I went to The Home Depot and bought our first new appliances: refrigerator, washer, and dryer. Although it was a little disapopinting to go home with only a receipt and a delivery date. As soon as we get them delivered, I'll take pictures to post. That's assuming I can find my computer underneath all the packing boxes, of course. :)

Oh, by the way, this house is not the house from the previous post. We found it while we were still on the back-up list of the other one. While we were frustrated and disappointed with not getting the first house, we were really excited about finding "our" house, so we decided to go for it. It has a bunch of features the other house didn't: a better layout, more square footage, a master bathroom, a two-car garage (the other house only had a one-car garage), a hot tub, a separate family room, and a fourth bedroom. It's such a great house, I even get excited just typing about it!

Now my evenings and weekends are spent packing and cleaning. I usually dread packing, but I keep telling myself how much I'm going to enjoy our new home. That get's me going. Hopefully moving day will be a breeze.

House hunting

I haven't posted in awhile. Part of the reason is we've been very busy looking for our first house. I have some exciting news, and some not exciting news. The exciting news - we made an offer on a house we really love Saturday morning. The not exciting news - the sellers didn't accept our offer first, but instead put us in a backup position. If we accept the backup position (we will because we love the house), then if something happens with the first position buyer then we get a shot at it. It might take up to two weeks to know if the first position buyer isn't going to be able to buy the house for whatever reason.

I will update when we know more.

Cool marble machine video

This is such a cool video! I love things like this. It's going around the blogging world quickly, so I apologize if you've already seen it. Wait, no I don't. It's so good it's worth seeing more than once!

Click on the watch button in the Incredible Machines box. Enjoy!

Favorite anytime movies

One of my friend's talked about her favorite anytime movies on her blog, so I thought I'd make a list of mine too. These are movies I will watch when I just want to veg (is that spelled right?), stitch, or curl up with my husband and kitty (or all three at the same time!). They are in no particular order.

1. Matrix (The first one is my favorite, of course.)
2. The Princess Bride
3. Lord of the Rings (I'm just getting into the commentaries - great for stitching.)
4. Double Jeopardy
5. Star Wars IV - VI
6. The Mummy 1 & 2
7. Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl
8. The Day After Tomorrow
9. Flight of the Navigator (I need to buy this one still)
10. Ever After
11. Independence Day
12. Indiana Jones (Last Crusade & Raiders of the Lost Ark are my two favorites)
13. Finding Nemo (I need to buy this one too)
14. Aladdin
15. The Shawshank Redemption (Okay, so there's a few I need to buy :) )
16. Men in Black
17. Sabrina (1995)
18. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
19. X-Men
20. Back to the Future (all 3!)
21. The Fugitive (This is one of my Dad's favorites. Dr. (said with a strong newscaster voice) Richard Kimble.)
22. Sahara (I don't have it yet)
23. Speed
24. The Thomas Crown Affair
25. Any Pierce Brosnan Bond film

Okay, I think I'll stop at 25. It turned into more of a favorite movie list in general because I don't own all of them. The first eight listed are the ones I reach for on a regular basis.

P.S. Thank you to those that encouraged me to write an update. It means a lot to me that you check my blog to see how things are going. Thanks! *hugs*

Lazy weekend

We have had a very lazy weekend. I started another jigsaw puzzle in the living room. It really works great to put up the card table. I have an Ott-Lite I use on the table to see the pieces; it shines light on the table but stays out of other people's eyes. This puzzle is a multi-picture of a wolf. It's a bunch of little pictures of animals made up so the shading in the big picture looks like a wolf. I started putting it together sometime last year, and about 3/4 of the way done, I put it away in a puzzle storing thingy. You put the puzzle on the flat piece of fabric, fill the tube with air then roll the tube down the fabric to create a roll of puzzle. But it's not designed for long-term storage as we found out. The air leaks out slowly and the tube shrinks letting the roll relax and lose pieces. We finally put the puzzle away a few weeks ago because it was almost all the way deflated. So now I'm starting it over. There were three good-sized sections still together, but I'm nowhere near where I was before. It was a fun puzzle before, and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I'm planning on watching a movie or two this afternoon and working on it. Fun!

We had fun weather yesterday. There was a short thunderstorm, but I've never been in one so close before! The thunder was not more than 2 seconds after the lightning, and it was so loud! The first thunder clap disturbed me out of a nap on the couch; I woke up very surprised and confused. John and I laughed at how startled I was. We saw a little hail, too.

Shopping/walking

Well, tonight after dinner at Olive Gardens, we did our walking around at Barnes & Noble. I know it doesn't count as aerobic excersice, but I'm tired nonetheless. Tomorrow I will go walking after work. Hopefully it's not raining. :)

By the way, we bought quite a few good bargain books, and I got a cute little set of notecards. Fun!

Walking log

So tonight we went for a short walk to the bank and back. It might have been a mile, but was probably a little less than that. It was already dark and cold.

I want to keep a walking log on my blog. I've seen other blogs where runners log their trips. I think it's a pretty cool idea.

My Mom's cat

My Mom's cat, Cjazz, is now in kitty heaven. He was young at 12 years, but he developed diabetes and was in a lot of discomfort. My parents decided to put him to sleep. The vet went to their house to issue the IV, and they said it was quite peaceful. They're going to bury him in the yard in a spot he loved to sit and watch all the creatures of the area. He was my cat, too, and I'll miss him.

New warm clothes

For work I bought new boot socks and more jeans (stretch boot cut) and a skin-hugging camisole. I also recovered my boots from my parents' house. Today at work my feet were quite cozy considering it was only 37 degrees out!

New link

My mother-in-law started her own blog! This is a big step for her. We sat down with her and helped her get it started. She has been interested in starting one for awhile now. I always love reading her emails to me. She's a good story teller, and I know she'll have some good posts to read.

Starting over

Okay, okay, so I haven't been posting every day. I will start again. Lately I've had a hard time thinking of what to post about. And I don't have as much time anymore just to sit down at the computer and fiddle.

And now that we are done with the birthday celebration, I want to again cut back on sweets and exercise more. I'll just keep writing this down and keep trying to get into this habit. It will be nice when the weather is nicer so we can walk outside more. I'm really looking forward to spring this year.

Friday the 13th - Good Luck Day

I've always considered Friday the 13ths to be Good Luck Days. I believe things happen according to your perception of things. Just believe you'll have good luck, and whatever happens, you can find the good in it. So good luck or bad luck is really just in your head.

Even though I don't really believe in luck, I have one silly superstition. I don't pick up pennies from the ground when tails is facing up. I can't explain why I follow this superstition. Like I said, it's quite silly.

Trying to eat healthier

For a few years now I keep telling myself that I will eat healthier and exercise so that I can be healthier and maybe a little thinner. Well, it's come to a climax now where I don't think I can go on eating junk. So I want to eat more dairy and fruit and veggies. And I want to walk every day after work. I'm writing this down so I can refer to it. Thoughts that don't get written down are never going to take place.

Puzzle games

I love puzzle games. There's one puzzle, called sudoku, that involves placing numbers in a 9 by 9 grid. One of the customers from work created his own sudoku website with a new puzzle every day at www.sudokuplace.com. I've gotten hooked on them. They are great to work on at work while driving between business. Well, my co-worker drives, and I sit and ride.

Mochas and lattes and tea, oh my!

This week I started working on a coffee truck that drives on a schedule route to different businesses to serve people espresso and coffee and some food items. I work with one other person on the truck. I'm quite excited about meeting new people and making espresso. We're out in the elements, but so far it hasn't been too cold. I'll post funny stories as they happen.

Homemade chicken noodle soup

Wow, I'm on a roll. Tonight I used the leftover chicken to make chicken stock for chicken noodle soup. It turned out pretty good, except I ran out of broth. I'll know to use more water for next time.

Yeah for trying new things!

First time roasting chicken

Last night I adventured into the world of roast chicken. I even made giblet gravy! I used a basil/thyme/pepper rub. It all turned out pretty good. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures.

Then tonight we had homemade pizza with bread made in our bread machine. It was really easy and really good! I'm going to make that more often.

Christmas cookies

My Mom and I usually make some cookies at Christmas time. One year we made seven different batches; it was very fun, but we both have a terrible sweet tooth, so now we limit to one or two batches total. This year we made jam thumbprints, which are like a shortbread cookie, rolled in egg whites and walnuts, with an indentation filled with jam. We used marionberry and raspberry jams, and they turned out very yummy. They disappeared quickly.

Narnia review

Over Christmas vacation, we went to see Narnia. I really liked it. The special effects were great, and the kids were awesome.

The only complaint I have is the PG rating. I think it should be rated PG-13 because of some of the war scenes. There wasn't much blood, but it would be intense and scary for little kids. There was a child (I'm not sure what age she was, but I'm guessing around 4-6) in the theater in the row behind us that told her Mom several times that she was scared and didn't want to watch it anymore. The mother told her it was okay, but didn't take her out of the theater. I was not impressed with the mother's decision to bring this young child to a scary movie and not respond to her daughter's request to leave.

Besides young children, I think everyone should see this movie. The actress that played Lucy gave an amazing performance. I can't wait to see what kind of young woman she grows into and what interesting parts she picks to play.

Tangrams

I bought this cool daily calendar that gives a new tangram puzzle everyday. I've played with tangrams before, but not enough to solve the harder ones. So far, the puzzles have been easy, especially since the next day's puzzle is similar to the last. I've enjoyed it though and look forward to a new puzzle every day.


After saying they were easy, I tried to do today's. It took several minutes instead of one. Oh well. I still had fun.

Cute kitty

Except for the evil eyes, Macy takes very good pictures. Here's she's surrounded by gifts. It was nice to have her with us on our Christmas vacation.

Dominoes

A cool gift that my father-in-law received for Christmas was a set of Mexican Train Dominoes. It's a set of dominoes that goes up to a double 12; this set showed the dots in different colors. I was intrigued by the patterns of the dots when they were laid out in sequence, so, of course, I took pictures. I like this one the best.

My Dad plays Diablo!

I've played Diablo II for many years. When we were still dating, my husband and I partied together quite often while I was away at school. About a year ago, my Mom bought the game, and she's enjoyed playing with both of us. And finally, on New Year's Eve, my Dad broke down and bought a copy for himself and we all played together with new characters. He is usually the last person to buy the latest thing. We had fun!

No longer a knitting blog

I've finally decided this shouldn't be considered a knitting blog anymore. I have too many other projects in the works to be able to knit on a daily basis, so most of the posts end up being about something else. Sometimes I don't post about other things because it's not about knitting, and I think I would rather post more often than post only about knitting.

As one of my new year's resolutions, I will post every day. I wonder how many other bloggers have the same resolution.

A doll and a clown

I can now post the picture of the doll and clown I finished for my cousin's daughters. Both dolls were printed fabric patterns that I partially put together a long time ago.

When I found the doll in my drawer, she still had her clothes patterns, so I just sewed them up. I couldn't find the rest of the clown clothes, so I bought the two fabrics and thought up the patterns myself. I ended up redoing almost every article of clothing at least once to make it work like I wanted it to. It was really fun even though I was frustrated a few times. What a good experience! Merry Christmas, cousins!

One project done

Well I finally sent off a package today that marks the finishing of a project that's been stuck in my brain since February. After Christmas, I'll show pictures of my little creations. I don't want to ruin the surprise for the receivers!

It's December already!

I can't believe it's the sixth of December already. I am just not ready for Christmas this year. I'm still working on cards, the annual ornaments are still in the design phase, and there are several people I have no idea what they'd like. Argh! It seemed like I was just waiting around for Christmas to roll around last year. But this year it seems like it should still be early November. Oh well, I guess they don't call it the Christmas rush for nothing!

Reminds me of my Dad's Christmas lights

For many years when I was growing up my Dad would put up Christmas lights outside. But they weren't ordinary Christmas lights. He set up the different strings to be controlled by a computer so he could make a dancing light show for the whole neighborhood.

He had always talked about putting the lights to music. I found this video on Google that is really fun, and it's a little reminder of what Dad's show was kinda like. If he ever would put the lights to music, knowing him it would be a beautiful orchestral arrangement or maybe something a cappella. Here's to you, Dad!

Heather's scarves

Here are two scarves I finished for my best friend Heather. Her birthday was this month, and she would have turned 28. She died in a car accident on the way back from our senior (high school senior) Disneyland trip together. I knit them for her Mom and myself so we could wear them and remember her.

I presented them to her Mom today and she picked the more narrow one. She was touched by the thoughtful gift. Happy Birthday, Heather.

Such a cutie!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Macy all cuddled up in her blanket. Too cute!

Finally done

I finally finished the blue fuzzy sweater. It's too big. But it was a good experience to get the whole thing done. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to take it out or give it away. I might make a scarf out of it. I just don't know yet.

Twenty inches

I didn't think I was another six inches along, but I guess so. It's getting to be a challenge to stuff it into the bag. It's quite fluffy!

Macy has been so clingy lately! But who could resist her? I wish the lighting was better. I'll get my husband's help next time. He's the photographer of the family.

Scarf out of leftovers

I had some leftover black chenille from the scarf for my sister-in-law, so I thought I'd try a moss stitch scarf for myself. I'm using size 3 needles to get a closer weave. But I'm getting really bored with it. I feel really stressed with three projects on the needles, and one needing to be sewn. It's not even relaxing to work on the blanket anymore. I know some people love having ten or twenty projects going at once, but I think my limit is closer to five. Plus I have other craft projects circling around in my head wanting to get out and worked on.

So I'm just going to push through and finish a project. I'm thinking about trying to finish the blue sweater. A friend at the knitting group urged me to bring it to the group to work on the seams. But I'm kinda itching to start it this week. Maybe tomorrow I'll start.

On to socks!

I thought I should try knitting some socks. I saw someone knitting with two circular needles at the knitting group, and she made it look so easy! So far, so good. She suggested size 1 needles. We'll see how they turn out. I might end up knitting tighter on later socks or I might go down a size.

I picked this yummy brown color mix to go with some new clog-like shoes. I don't have any brown socks for them yet.