Done, Done, Diddley Done

It took a few hours to complete but my mid year review at work is done.  Such a weight lifted off my shoulders.  Since our jobs are going away in January, it's hard to justify the sweat that went into the task but hopefully it will make a difference if there are jobs in another department to compete for.  I'm amazingly bad at tooting my own horn, as my boss suggested I do, but I try to keep track of anything meaningful that I manage to contribute.

I know I've had enough of this heat wave.  It was 94º today and so darn humid.  I took Maggie for a walk, since the neighbors were in their backyard, and she did her usual pulling and sniffing for the first part of the walk and then decided it was far too uncomfortable for that foolishness and settled down for a civil walk.  Once home she plopped herself in front of the fan and I cracked open a nice cold beer.  I'm looking forward to a cooler weekend but hoping all of the things I've recently planted survive.

Imperial Sighting

I could crab about my challenging, over-the-top, swamped day at work and how I didn't think I'd ever get everything done I had planned to do, much less the 'surprises' I had.  But I won't.

Instead, when I got home from knit group tonight (definitely dusk) I spotted this in the parking lot next to my house:

Sooooooo sweet -- absolutely pristine condition.

Look closely at the license plate -- it's the same age as me and sure looks a whole lot better!

Check out the sidewalls and hubcap:

What are those buttons on the left side of the dashboard???

No doubt about which model it is:

This picture is a truer color than the first few.  The owner is no doubt getting ready for the Woodward Dream Cruise coming up next month.  That's when everyone who owns or loves classic cars comes out to take in all the chrome and smell all the fumes.

Most of us growing up in the Motor City relate closely to automobiles.  We remember the cars our parents had when we were kids or the cars our grandparents would drive to visit us.  Everyone remembers the car they learned to drive on and most assuredly recalls their very first car.

My Dad worked for Chrysler so we had plenty of their products.  Dad drove a 1968 purple Charger, Mom had a 1971 orange Challenger -- say aren't those cars in production again??!  The first car I owned was my grandfather's 1966 Dodge Coronet.  I had no misgivings about it -- it was darn ugly.  But it got me where I needed to go.  It was also my first accident when I got sandwiched on the way home from school listening to Beach Boys on my 8-track player.  The guy behind me pushed me into the rear end of a giant white Pontiac Catalina convertible driven by a girl from school that I loathed.  I broke my front tooth and split my lip, bleeding all over my new powder blue raincoat that I had just gotten for my birthday.  Waaaah.

I bet you have some fond memories of the cars from your past, too.

July 4th + 1

What have I done on my day off?  Hmm.  Not what I planned on doing but I was still productive.  If you're a regular reader you should notice the blog has had a major makeover.  Thanks to Sarah's blog post  I learned how to create a banner, something I've wanted to do for a long time but didn't think I had it in me.

I've picked a new template, colors, etc. -- what's the verdict?   Like it?  Hate it?  Go back to the old version?  I spent several hours off and on working on it so I hope the changes are good.  I like it, maybe that's the most important element!

I didn't get hardly any knitting done this weekend.  I was busy putzing around though and when it's as hot as it currently is (93ºF) I'm not about to do anything outside.  Ok, maybe one thing -- head over to the party store to get some Diet Pepsi for my daily caffeine fix.  I'll be sweating the whole way down the alley and back.  Phew!

I've got some barbecued chicken in the oven, corn on the cob ready for the pot, and some waxed beans that need to be steamed.  Yummo!  

It's back to work tomorrow and it will be a long day.  Plenty of regular jobs to run and I need to work on my mid year review.  I know I keep saying that but it's such a PITA to do.  I'm always relieved when it's done, much like doing my income taxes.  The weather will be steamy for several days -- not sure if I want to wait at the bus stop in the hot, hot sun, or just drive the T&C.

I hope everyone had a safe, happy holiday weekend in the States.  

Happy Birthday America

Today America turned 234 years old.  Very young by many country's standards, still evolving and far from perfect.  While it's nice to visit other countries this is still the place for me.

Huh?

Since this is a long holiday weekend for those of us in the U.S. many people head for vacation homes, plan picnics, or just hang out with friends and family.  Kevin headed up north to visit Holly & Mike.  I took advantage of the quiet house to color my hair.  No interruptions to a messy task.

Once done, I called my Mom to see if she wanted to meet for hot dogs at Lipuma's in Rochester.  'Oh boy, that sounds great' was her response, so we agreed to meet at noon.  When I got to the restaurant I parked beside her car.  I have to say I was flabbergasted when I walked into the restaurant.  Not only was she seated at a table already but had her food and was already biting into her hot dog.  I looked at the time on my cell phone and it was 12:02.  Guess she couldn't wait.  Not sure why I needed to be there.  It felt really odd.  Whatever.

I must have been annoyed because I didn't have much to say.  We had talked a few days ago on the phone and were pretty much caught up anyway.  I tossed my garbage and waited for her to finish.  She actually ate two hot dogs plus her fries and a lemonade -- quite a hearty lunch for her.  When we got up to leave she took her tray over to the garbage and dumped the whole thing in -- tray included.  I couldn't believe what I had seen so I said 'Mom, you didn't dump the tray in too, did you?'  She looked a bit confused and said 'Oh, I think I did' and pulled the tray out through the garbage receptacle opening.  I think she was embarrassed because there were people standing right there who saw what had happened.  10 years ago she would have laughed it off.  It felt really, really odd.

We parted ways and I decided as long as I was driving 30+ miles for this outing I would stop at nearby Skeins on Main to see what was new or on sale.  After looking around a bit I limited my purchase to sale yarn and a cute notepad:

They'll be having sidewalk sales there in a couple of weeks so I didn't want to get anything that wasn't on sale today.

Next I stopped at My Craft Room in Troy and picked up a few more skeins to use to make more hats:

I tried to shop at a third store but was rebuffed by the employee who announced she had a hard stop of 3 PM, when the sign on the door said 4 PM.  It was 2:52 PM so I just left.  Not naming the store and probably won't be back either.

I didn't have anything in the fridge for dinner so I decided to eat out.  I wanted Italian but the restaurant was closed so I went to a pub restaurant instead.  I felt a little wacky so I ordered something new to me -- a Mexican Quesadilla Burger:

It was delicious and so big I brought half of it home.  Each time I've been to Rosie O'Grady's the food has been super.

I finished the evening by sitting out on my front porch, listening to the Tigers' game and knitting on my entrelac bag.  I'm about 3/4 done and should be able to finish it tomorrow and post the pre-felted pictures.  Next up are some hats made with the yarn I purchased today.

My next door neighbor is worse than a kid.  He torments Maggie and gets her barking up a storm and running through my flower beds.  He has a fabulous yard and probably gets some perverse pleasure out of seeing my feeble attempts destroyed.  Then he was setting off fireworks (illegal ones I'm sure) so I shut all the windows and turned on the air conditioning.  Ugh.  Can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Royal Oak

Some of you know exactly where I live and what I do but others only know what they've read here on the blog. Kevin's boss sent out this link that profiles a few spots here in my chosen home town.  It does last nearly nine minutes and is a bit cheesy at times but it's nice to see a few businesses highlighted. Oh, and look quickly at 7:33 into the clip -- that's Kevin working on some guacamole at Zumba Mexican Grille!

Today was the Day

Have you ever headed out on the road with multiple options to get where you going and you're certain the roads you chose were the absolute, without a doubt, indubitably, wrong choices?  It took me 60 minutes to go 23 miles.  Not that I could have hoofed it on two feet to get there faster but jeez!

I met Holly out at Great Lakes Crossing Mall for her anniversary dinner, minus her husband.  I really wanted to give my present to both of them but, oh well.  We walked around the mall a bit, looking in the stores, deciding where to eat.  We settled on 'Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill'.  Before she could get her hands on the grub I handed her the bag with her gift in it.

I really do hope that Kevin didn't spill the beans but I couldn't be certain.  Either way she loved her gift:

I began hooking 'The Forest Journey' when it seemed for sure that she and Mike would end up together.  I didn't expect it to take nearly 4 years for me to finish it but that's the way life goes sometimes.  The pattern was originally done by P J Rankin-Hults as a folk paper cutting design but was adapted for rug hooking by Kris Miller of Spruce Ridge Studios, and finished at 17 1/2" x 47 1/2", so it's a pretty good sized rug.  Kris also dyed about 90% of the wool I used.  I used a Puritan frame, a Townsend cutter to cut the wool into 1/4" strips except for the animal outlines which were 6/32" and a plain ol' Joan Moshimer primitive hook.  Fancy cutter, un-fancy hook.  Go figure.  I used cording and wool yarn, Cascade 220 and Classic Elite Skye Tweed, to finish the edges.  I would use this method again in a heartbeat -- so much easier than using twill tape to bind it --

And of course I had to make a label for it.  Behind the duck cloth label is a piece of paper with more details about the rug pattern, maker, etc.

Here are some close ups of the animals:

I sure hope Mike 'gets' it.  Holly said this would be a family heirloom so I think that's about as much praise as you could ever hope for!

After we ate out meals -- note to self, skip the spinach artichoke dip soup, and drank our drinks ($8 each for a glorified Arnold Palmer) we headed out, first stopping for a photo op:

Holly did get on the bull but it wasn't actually functioning:

It's a little blurry but you get the point.

With that we headed for home and a much less stressful drive.

Tomorrow at work will be very quiet with half the staff or more out of the office.  Hopefully I'll have time to finish up my mid-year review and get caught up ahead of a very busy week there next week.