Quilts!

Just because I can't resist showing you these beauties that I liberated over the weekend at bargain-basement prices. :)

Crazy weather, etc.

Spent all morning figuring I was going to meet my death on the 17th floor of a downtown building, since it's hard to get down 17 floors before a tornado comes, & now it's nice enough to sit outside on the porch swing. Interesting weather for Ash Wednesday, isn't it? We're off to church later this evening. My best Ash Wednesday story is from the year I studied abroad. Pete was in Paris visiting, and in our pitiful attempt to fast, we *only* had McDonald's fries before going to Mass at Notre Dame that evening. Having thrown caution to the wind, we then decided to cross the bridge and eat at La Castafiore on the Ile St-Louis. I also remember that for some reason the priest who applied Petey's ashes put them ON TOP OF HIS BANGS, so he had no ashes, while the priest who applied mine clearly thought he was a better priest for covering my entire forehead with a sooty mess that in no way resembled a cross. Fortunately, it was Northern Europe in winter, so it was dark.

In all seriousness, it was depressing to wake up this morning & realize that some people will remember yesterday & today not for the excitement of a *real* election, but for sadness & loss. Let's remember them, especially today.

A smelly post...

Now, I have pseudo-autistic hypersensitivities just like Monkey, but mine are more of the texture variety than the smell variety, so this is not as exciting for me as it was for her. Lindsey suggested that I list the smell of fresh hundred-dollar bills, but I worked at a bank one summer during college, & that smell is actually kind of gross. :)

So, 5 Things That I Like to Smell, in no particular order, and by no means an exhaustive list:

1) Fresh-baked bread.

2) Imminent rain.

3) Line-dried sheets. (I WILL have a clothesline by summer, I will!)

4) Mr. Sketch SCENTED markers.

5) Old books.

Next?

A happy post....

Since I'm WAY behind on Monkey's latest 5 Things posts, I thought I'd catch up. I can't promise that all three will get done tonight, though. :)

First up: 5 Places I've Been, But I'd Like to See Again!

1. Prague. We've appreciated my obsession before, but let's continue to do so today. WARNING: More social studies geekiness approacheth. There are two HUGE reasons that Prague is in better shape today than most of the rest of Eastern Europe: a) Hitler wanted to make the city into a museum of extinct Jewish culture, so he didn't desecrate the city's large Jewish quarter, and b) even Communism is better in the Czech Republic, so the city just didn't suffer as much as most other places did. Thus, large parts of Prague & the Czech countryside look just as they did centuries ago, despite two hot wars & a cold one, too. In a nutshell, if you ever get the opportunity to visit, please do so. :)


2. Yosemite National Park. When my uncle lived in San Francisco, we went to visit one summer, & drove up the California coast to Yosemite. It was amazing, but my anti-outdoorsy family didn't do nearly as much cool stuff as we could have. We did, however, get to stay at this fantastic old hotel, which I loved.


3. Boston. I've only been once, and it was blisteringly hot, but I still want to go back & visit. ;)


4. New York - but I get to go on Friday. Whoo-hoo!!!

5. And, because it's Mardi Gras, and because there's nowhere on the planet like it, New Orleans.


Pictures are all courtesy of ye olde Internet.

You know you're a social studies geek when....

...voting almost makes you cry.

Now - let me explain. For those of you who don't know, we live in what could technically be called "the hood." In fact, I often call it that myself, mostly to alleviate the concerns of people who think we own a half-million dollar home. There are houses in our larger neighborhood in that price range, so when people hear where we live, that's what they imagine. We live in the not-quite-as-nice portion of the area, which we actually prefer, since our neighbors are: a) friendly; b) not millionaires; and c) the kind of people that do their own yardwork. (I just returned from a work event at the Ritz-Carlton on Lake Oconee, and let me tell you, I have ZERO desire to ever lead that lifestyle. It was ridiculous, but I digress.)

Back to the almost-crying. I don't know how it works elsewhere, but in Georgia, polls are traditionally staffed by civic-minded retirees. They take their jobs very seriously, and some of them look old enough to remember when women got the right to vote. Since we vote electronically, it's very impressive how tech-savvy some of these ladies can be!

Anyway, our neighborHOOD is very racially integrated, and the voting lines today were no exception. What made me almost cry was the thought, though, that most of the people running the polling place were not able to vote until they were well into adulthood. Thanks to the wonders of Jim Crow, the ladies running my precinct would (I'm guessing) probably not have gotten to vote for President until 1968 - at best. And since some of them probably could have voted for FDR in his first term, that's really terribly sad.

Now, you might think, if a system has disenfranchised you for that long, & generally only worked to hurt you for no reason other than the color of your skin, you would probably disengage & say, "forget it." But for these ladies, that didn't stop them. I would love to know about the changes they've seen during their lifetimes, and if they realize how important it is that they are doing the job that they did today. Instead, I just smiled & joked with them. The oldest lady was teasing everyone about having filled out their verification forms wrong, & that we were going to break her fingers off because she was having to do extra writing. I thought that was hysterical, and when she got to me, she started singing, "Mrs. Brown has come to TOWN." That got a big laugh, of course, even though it's not the most original joke in the world.

Moral of the story - if you haven't voted yet, go do it! (And if you don't know for whom to vote, call me & I'll tell you. :) And I hope, L & M, you noticed that I didn't end that last phrase with a preposition.) Should you need more convincing, head over to Amy's, & read her thoughts on voting, too.

And the winner is....

Natalie!!!!!!! You might even get an in-person delivery if I get really energetic. (Not likely, just to be fair. haha)

Thanks for playing, everyone. Pictures of your treats will appear this afternoon.

And for those of you with children, I've been up for quite a while, don't worry. :)

2 small things.

1) I will draw the name of our winner whenever I get up in the morning (sometime between 7 &10), so it's your last chance to comment on the previous post, lurkers....
2) I am about to enjoy some yummy king cake. Bear provided the necessary inspiration, and I'm going to be one happy chica very, very, very shortly.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Holy cow!

THIS IS MY ONE HUNDREDTH POST!!!

Honestly - that is quite unbelievable. I'm usually quite mercurial (fabulous word I learned from Anastasia Krupnik - anyone??), so to stick with something this long is impressive to me.

Here you see the results of last night's mad crafting - my valentine's for Sarah's swap. And she'll be needing some valentine goodness if you've read her blog about yesterday's crazy weather in that part of the world. I'll show you the finished product after the valentines have been transported by Cupid to their assorted new homes. I will say they ended up quite differently than what I planned in the beginning (think pale pink paisley becomes bright red vintage different). Anyway, they are on their way to Sarah - just hope they can get there through all 0f that snow!

To celebrate ye olde hundredth post, I'll do a little giveaway. Since I'll be crafting up a storm all weekend for Becky, and finishing a few decorations for this house, I'll whip up a little extra for one lucky reader. Since only a few people read this all the time, you stand a good chance, now don't you? Leave a comment & I'll draw a name. And Monkey, I have your tamale-related surprise ready to go, too. :)

Thanks for reading - this has been quite a bit of fun so far.