Thurs Feb 28: On my Feet

FitBit Activity: 19067 steps taken, 17 floors climbed, 7.95 miles traveled, 2459 calories burned, 924 active score

Even though I took the T - I walked a lot today.

First to Central for the post office and lunch, then the T to Davis Square where I got a quilting foot for the Singer machine - I hope it will work!  It's the kind Leah Day sells, but for more than two times the price.  I had him do the modifications....

Walked around trying to find a nail place - found several hair places instead.  Walked to Porter Square.  Returned the embroidery hoop at Michaels and looked around.  Then decided to take the T back as I wasn't sure which way to go by foot.

Once home made a simple noodle, chicken, pea dish with a sauce that was nice.

Then got antsy so went on another walk closer to home but adding on the final 5000 steps.

Expense
Quilting Pressing Foot - $19.00

Wed Feb 27: Excuses Excuses

Fitbit Activity: 672 steps taken, 2 floors climbed, 0.28 miles traveled, 2049 calories burned, 123 active score

Yes, those are the numbers for Feb 27th.  It was raining today - or DH said it was.  I just didn't go out.

We had the left overs for our meals then in the evening some waffles with fruit and yogurt - and some ice cream.

The other "good" thing I did today was to call our DS and to do facetime to finish the mail business.  There is one check for him to deposit, a DMV bill (his) for him to pay by April something, and one piece of mail to either scan and send as an attachment or to call me and I will tell him the answers to check off - something required for the house insurance.  He was going to go by the house in the late afternoon to collect the new email - but we didn't set up time to do the catch up again - today or later.  Since we didn't connect I guess it was later!

I surfed and watched TV as my fitbit numbers will verify.  It took a long time to write up the job aid for how to do the deposits - hope I remembered to add all the steps needed!

Tomorrow I'll get back in the saddle!

Tues Feb 26: Fabric and Cory Doctorow

Fitbit Activity: 15863 steps taken, 13 floors climbed, 6.61 miles traveled, 2369 calories burned, 838 active score

Started the day around 10 am with oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas.  That's a pretty good way to begin.

I've rethought the DH quilt.  Instead of adding to the columns I will reoriented the pieces so there are rows going from the head to the foot - that will allow me to have more variety in the fabrics I use.
--------------------------------------------------
Row 1

AAAAAA
--------------------------------------------------
|  A |     |  A |     |  A |     |  A |     |  A |
|----|  C  |----|  C  |----| C   |----|  C  |----|
|  B |     |  B |     | B  |     | B  |     |  B |
--------------------------------------------------

BBBBBBB

--------------------------------------------------

Row 2

DDDDDD
--------------------------------------------------
|  D |     |  D |     |  D |     |  D |     |  D |
|----|  F  |----|  F  |----| F   |----|  F  |----|
|  E |     |  E |     | E  |     | E  |     |  E |
--------------------------------------------------

EEEEEEEEEE

--------------------------------------------------
etc.


After I bit I got organized and left for my walk.  Today I went to the fabric store and picked out eight more pieces of batik or batik-like fabric.  DH said he liked purple and blue so I had a mission to try to get those colors.  I couldn't help myself though got a few with some green and gold just so there was a difference in the colors.

Expenses (SewFisticated Fabric/McGrath Hgwy)
3 * 1 yard = 3 yard @ $1.99
1 * 1.75 = 1.75 yard @ $1.99
3 * .75 yard = 2.25 yard @ $1.99
1 * .25 yard = .25 yard @ $1.99
=========
7.25 yards @ $1.99 = $14.42

Then I went to the Dollar Store.  Looked for a pot scrubber that is attached to a holder, but only found one with a plastic brush end.

Sally's had shampoo and conditioner - I have been using what the previous tenants left for us.

Grabbed a quick ham and cheese and iced tea at Dunkin Doughnuts.  I felt guilty going here as it's really DH favorite spot for 'regular' coffee.

Went to Shaw's to pick up a few things then it was time to go home - but on the way I thought perhaps DH would like me to pick up dinner.  He did - actually he wanted me to go somewhere other than Life Alive but I was already headed that way.  So got some pasta and a salad.

There wasn't time to eat though as we were going to the Harvard Bookstore to hear Cory Doctorow give a talk about his new book, Homeland.  I met the couple sitting next to me - he had been a biology professor at Purdue - did his sabbaticals in Boston.  He retired 7 years ago and they live here now.  They said every night pretty much they went to a book talk or music evening.  They said there were always places to go. He gave me their contact information to get ideas if I wanted.  The presentation was very well done.  Instead of reading from the book he talked about the theme and background for the project.  It's a complicated issue (privacy and copyright) with uneven applications and effects in real life.  Cory has had practice giving the talk - this is a 24 city in 28 day tour or maybe it was 28 city in 24 day tour - any way pretty intense I think.  We had him sign a book for our DS.

Then we saw a sign for Mr Bartley's hamburgers - and decided to eat there.  I broke the unwritten rule and got a hot turkey sandwich instead of a burger - but that was delicious.  DH enjoyed his burger with fries - so it was a good break.  Tomorrow we'll eat the Live Alive food.

So tonight I'm washing the new fabric I bought.

Mon Feb 25: Piecing & New Favorite Treats

FitBit Activity: 10136 steps taken, 2 floors climbed, 4.23 miles traveled, 2050 calories burned, 531 active score

Woke at a reasonable time - starting putting together my next quilt.  We are liking it enough that I'm thinking of making it longer and making it as gift for DH.  I can get other fabric for the charity quilt for Quilts for Kids.  I still need the quilting foot for the machine and the pinmoors so now I can cut and piece.

It's nice to use the metal kitchen table for the pressing and cutting - the right height and I don't have to worry about scratching anything.

You can see the design that I'm working on.  Each column has three subcolumns.  The outside columns are just a strip of material.  The inner pieced column has two kinds of piecing.  One is a square and one is two pieces of fabric cut also into a square.  It sort of makes the square pop.  The designs in the fabric are sort of organic.  One looked like wax batik, one is stamped design (with possible wax), one is tie dyed, and one is either a more complicated tie dye or is sprayed.  I like the combinations and have enough fabric to make around 80 inches tall - and at least 50 inches wide.  The measurements are all based on my 4.5 inch ruler - so the strips are 4.5 inches wide, the square is 4.5 inches, the inbetween square is made of two pieces each 2.5 x 4.5 inches.  So one section will be 1 foot by 40 inches.  I will need to add more width - I can use different yet- to be purchased fabric if that is needed.

A few weeks ago someone on the lib-quilter list shared a design for a baby quilt that I got this idea from. In her design the strips were sewn together - then cut to make a whole strip of squares - these were then sewn between larger strips of uncut fabric - it was very nice looking.  I didn't have the variety of fabric so adapted this way.

I made oatmeal with blueberries and mangos for breakfast, and a thick vegetable soup/stew with a tomato base for lunch - added a little cheese on the top! Toasted English muffin - (DH let me know he doesn't like whole wheat anything!).

Added later:  For dinner once again we got a salad and hot dish from Live Alive  but tonight I also got DH an Almonds & Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate bar (by Chocolove).  He really liked that!  And for mainly me although I also shared two things that are already on my favorites list:

lizlovely.com

healthywhitetea.com

Inko's White Tea Blueberry and Liz Lovely Gluten Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  The first container has 2 servings - but at 28 calories for each it didn't feel bad to drink the entire 16 ounces.  The cookies were unexpectedly wonderful.  I don't 'believe' in gluten free stuff - but do as a rule like oatmeal/raisin cookies.  These were moist, tasty, sweet, soft with the occasional walnut.  There were two cookies in the pouch, and I should have read the label first as a half of cookie is 180 calories and 7g of fat!  Luckily I only had 1.5 cookies, so I saved 180 calories but that means I added 540 calories to my daily count.  That's almost 30% of what I'm supposed to eat!  So these cookies will need to be a once a week or longer treat....  Or I guess I could have a half of one cookie and freeze the rest to parcel out to myself.

We watched a PBS special on Li Wei Artist and Activist - Trying to get to bed earlier than usual so we can get up and get more work done in the day time!

Sun Feb 24: Snow

FitBit Activity, 5047 steps taken, 4 floors climbed, 2.1 miles traveled, 1847 calories burned, 336 active score

We pretty much spent the day watching TV (and I cut some fabric).

Started out with an old book talk by a very young pre-President Obama - then the program changed and ended up being Monk after Monk after Monk.  It was pretty fun as most of the episodes I had not seen before.

Before they closed, I went to Life Alive to pick up a salad and hot dish that we split again.  It was nice.  I'm not sure which dishes Bernie got.  I had a bottle of white tea with blueberry flavoring that was delicious while I waited for the food.  It was a nice walk....

But then just as we were thinking about closing down the TV - I was going to call San Diego and B was going to try to get to bed I saw the beautiful snow out the window.  It started after I returned with the food, and mostly was not sticking to anything.  But just as we were going to make the transition I saw the branches had a little pile of snow.  It was so beautiful.

So we went for a little walk around the neighborhood and beyond to see the snow - I called C and chatted while we were on the empty city streets.  It was a nice thing to do - although it got us to bed close to 2am.....

I have four pieces of fabric - I just each into two 4.5 inch strips (that's the width of my ruler), and one 2.5 inch strip.  I cut one of the wider strips into squares.  It will be fun to work on this project - such large pieces so the top will go together rather quickly!

Sat Feb 23: Chris!!

Fitbit not working properly

We woke at 11:30 and at 11:40ish Chris called to say he was working north of Boston and would we like to meet for lunch? Of course we said yes! It was just enough time to clear off the dining table and get changed. DH took the trash out too.

He drove up in a new little white car - parked away neatly in the garage.

At S&S Deli

At COOP

After showing him the place we walked down to the S & S Deli for a nice brunch.  Then we walked to Harvard Yard and to the COOP.
And then it was on to show them (and tell them everything I could remember) about Washington's Headquarters and the Longfellow house.  It was nice to share the neighborhood a bit with him.  We made plans for him to come back with his brother later - said we'd go to Brazilian BBQ place....  I was glad to have some brownies to give him to nibble on his way home.

After he left I realized the fitbit was not working properly as it only had .6 mile after all that walking!  : (

The other day I had defrosted some chicken for dish I was putting together - but then we decided to eat at Life Alive for those two days - so tonight was chicken night!  I also cooked the brussel sprouts - pretty nice.

I trimmed the brussel sprouts ends off and cut them in half.  Put in pan with diced ham then after a bit added water and some vegetable broth concentrate - covered until the vegetables were tender.

The chicken was marinated in balsamic vinegar then put in a pan with some oil.  After it was browned on one side I turned over and covered each piece with a few tablespoons of horseradish. Right before serving I put another few tablespoons of sour cream in the pan to heat it up.  I cut the chicken in pieces and put it on top of the vegetables - very nice.

We watched the last episode of House of Cards and DH found some other shows to watch on HuluPlus.  (You still have commercials to go thru....)

--------

Chris went to high school with our son.  He has degree in engineering now and is working out of Rhode Island...

Fri Feb 22: Longfellow House & Washington Headquarters

Fitbit Activity: 12462 steps taken, 6 floors climbed, You have climbed: The Tallest Dinosaur, 5.2 miles traveled, 2167 calories burned, 644 active score

Today I walked thru Harvard Area to get to the Longfellow House - there was a special tour to celebrate Washington's birthday as the house had been used by him as headquarters for the first 9 months of the war.  It is lovely that the house has been preserved so well.  The ranger who gave the tour was very interested in poetry and literature - nice job.  The head ranger, it turns out was new to the area, came from Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego.  So we had a nice time chatting at the end. We both enjoy not having cars here.

Then I walked farther along the street to see the other houses he told me about and to just get a sense of things.  Walked back on a different street and saw new places: schools, houses, theatres, and churches - even a cemetery.

I went to the COOP to get a notebook with quad rule - and had a good time looking at books too while I was there!

Walked down Mass Ave to Life Alive where DH called ahead so I didn't have to wait for food, just paid and left for home.

We again split the food and enjoyed it a lot.  I got soup for tomorrow that we will have with food we will cook.

We only have one more episode of House of Cards to watch - and I finished the Death Comes to Pemberly book - all the loose ends were tied up nicely.  There was it turns out a character that I didn't think was a major one that had a major part in the end - actually two of them but the one I didn't pay attention to at all when they were introduced at the beginning in the review.

Tomorrow it will snow in the evening I think so I think I will wear tennis shoes just to have lighter shoes on while I walk!

Thur Feb 21: Slow Day

FitBit Activity:  9202 steps taken, 2 floors climbed, (You have climbed: A Tall Giraffe), 3.84 miles traveled, 2038 calories burned, 520 active score.

Today I didn't get a lot done. Emails, thinking, cleaning. I actually woke up too early and didn't sleep well - I got dressed and made food but didn't really accomplish anything...

In the evening though I found that Trader Joe's was sort of near here and somehow that interested DH so we went walking thru a new to us neighborhood to that store. He was really happy as next to TJ's there was a computer store that he described as being like Fry's with lots of different things, including Apple products. He bought some of those back support frame deals and met me at the grocery store. We picked items that would make it so we would have meals in the house ready to be fixed.

On the way back we stopped at the most wonderful vegetarian restaurant, Life Alive. I got a salad and DH picked a hot dish - we split the meals at home and marveled at how delicious it was. We are considering eating there every night! Maybe they have a recipe book or classes. What a treat that would be.

Watched another episode of House of Cards and ate some sesame covered cashews that DH got at Trader Joe's.

Tomorrow I'll: get a new notebook, visit George Washington's headquarters, call to see about the quilting foot for the machine, order the pinmoors from Leah Day...

Received: Pheasant Hill Dessert Roll and pattern, Dessert for Two

Thank you Kansas Trouble Quilters!

http://quiltquest.blogspot.com/2013/01/im-winner-pheasant-hill-dessert-roll.html

Wed Feb 20: Eddie Izzard

Fitbit Daily Activity: 14424 steps taken, 18 floors climbed (You have climbed: The Leaning Tower of Pisa),  6.01 miles traveled, 2308 calories burned, 779 active score.

I pulled myself out of bed at a better time than yesterday, weighed myself, did some email, had some lunch, then left to see if the local fabric places happened to have a quilting foot for the wonderful Singer that wonderful lib-quilter Audrey got me on Freecycle.

Took a different street, went down Hamphire Street and ended up sort of near MIT!  Then cut across to Cambridge Street and went to first SEW LOW Discount Fabrics Inc, 473 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA - they didn't have what I needed, but I did see great looking fleece for $5.99 a yard - I didn't bring my pattern envelope so I wasn't sure how many yards I needed to get for that jacket I want to try to make.  Sewfisticated Discount Fabrics, 14 McGrath Hwy, Somerville, MA also didn't have the quilting foot.  Her fleece didn't look as nice, but she had something called minky that might be good to try....  She did have a tape measure for fifty cents and a piece of batik for $1.49 so I go that before heading to Shaws (Grocery store).  Both fabric places have nice workers - they both referred me to the Davis Square Singer Sewing Machine place so guess I will visit there soon.

Expenses
$ .50 tape measure
 1.49 batik fabric - about 3/4 yard
$2.00 Total

At Shaw's I got pudding, whipped cream, batteries and cake mix - all the essentials.  (ha!) DH made the boboli pizza while I rested a bit and checked on where the evening event was to be held.....

This was the second event we attended put on by the Harvard Humanist group - they are a nice group.  I'm glad they have some events open to the public. (What a deal - tickets to their event were only $25 each - to see Eddie in NYC it's almost $200 a seat!)

When we got home we had some pudding while watching an episode of House of Cards.

"We are delighted to announce that comedian Eddie Izzard will accept the 6th Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism -- an award presented at Harvard University each year by the Humanist Community at Harvard, the American Humanist Association, and the Harvard Community of Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics.

Previous recipients have included: novelist Sir Salman Rushdie, punk rock star and biologist Greg Graffin, writer/director Joss Whedon, TV debunkers Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (of the hit show Mythbusters), humorist Stephen Fry, and author Mary Roach.

Held in Harvard’s Memorial Church, a historic building in the center of the campus yard, the award ceremony honors an individual whom we feel has made a superlative contribution to Humanism in world culture. 

In addition to his humor, Eddie Izzard’s political activism, charity work, and support for education reminds us all that the nonreligious can be outstanding members of global society. 

Join us for this celebration, performance, and opportunity to ask questions!"

The Harvard Humanist group is not funded by Harvard, I'm not sure really how they get to insert Harvard in their name.  I need a way to meet people so I'm hoping this group will help with that. I don't need to talk about theology but do need friends here to share some of my time with while my DH is working on his sabbatical projects.

I had emailed the Cambridge Many Helping Hands organization after spending MLK there helping with things and after I got my sewing machine, but have not received an answer yet...  I could be doing some sewing for them while I am here.

I've missed some days of posting - I finished the top for the Quilts for Kids project during that time - after returning from NYC.

Quilts for Kids Project from provided kit.

I don't like the fabric as much as the first kit they sent me (Robots on a yellow background), but it is looking nice now that it's all together.

Now I need to get the quilting foot for this singer machine and the pinmoors so I can baste this baby!  I left a project in San Diego all set to quilt with the first batch of pinmoors that I got last spring.  They are so much easier to use that safety pins!

Linking to Sew Many Ways - Find a Friend Friday - maybe there are some liberated quilters who'd like to walk with me or meet for coffee!

Tues Feb 19: Reading

Today I enjoyed myself reading, reading, reading.

The story takes place 6 years after the end of Pride and Prejudice - Elizabeth and Darcy have been happily married and have children.  The evening before a big party, Wickham is involved in a murder.  The writing is true to Jane Austin - lots of fun.

I then did some bill paying and emails.

In the evening I got DH to go on a walk with me - I had wanted to get a notebook and then to get some dinner maybe.  It turned out to be raining so dinner moved to the top - we went to a nice place for hamburgers - got a better umbrella and then home to watch a few more episodes of House of Cards.

: )

Added later:  Book is Death Comes to Pemberly by P. D. James - was recommended to me by my Swedish friend!

Sat Feb 16: Davis and Porter Square

So in between now and the previous post I went to NYC with my friend - we had a wonderful time.

Today though B and I took the T to Davis Square to look around.  Originally the plan was to go to Live at the Met, but the tickets were sold out by the time I clicked to buy them.  So decided to see where the Italian cooking class was going to be held so it would be easier for me to get there in the dark when the class is held later this week.  It was just a few blocks from the T - and what a happening place it is!  There were lines of people waiting to get sandwiches, cheese, vegetables, sausages, wine.  Very popular - and everything looked wonderful.  There were not many places to sit and eat though so we went on back thru the square.  There were many places to eat and drink.

We  picked a place though that turned out to have poor service and lousy food - oh well.  It's hard to mess up two eggs with potatoes and toast but they did.  Joshua Tree Bar and Grille - Somerville - I will remember to not go back!

We walked on and found a Goodwill store where B found a sweater and coat - both for $25! They looked nice so good for him.

The phone said it would just be 9 minutes to Davis Square by foot so we did that, enjoying the houses and few stores that were on the way.  I think it took less than 9 minutes to get to the mall. He went to Radio Shack and I went to Michael's....

Expenses
500 quilting pins = $12.00
Tomato pin cushion = $2.00
5 Schmetz Universal Needles 80/12 = $3.30
Total = $17.30

Then we went to Shaw's and got food for a beef stew tonight and pizza later on.

It was nice to walk home - it was supposed to be snowing, guess that will be later tonight.

I always cut the beef into smaller pieces and am glad I did that this time as about 1/3 of the meet was spoiled in the center!  Yuck.  I was glad to find out before it was all cooked together.  The sell by date was tomorrow so I don't know what the deal was.  So we will have a vegetable stew with a little beef for flavoring.  It's cooking now.

Beef Stew
about 5 oz. stew meat toss in flour then in the frying pan to brown

diced:
1 large onion
3 celery stocks
Put directly in with the meat

6 carrots
2 parnips
1 potato
microwaved to speed the cooking up and put in the pan with the meat and onion

Salt, pepper and pizza seasoning (as that is all I had)

Added about 1 cup of chicken broth (as that is all I had), 1 cup of red wine, and about 3 cups of water to cover the food.

Low heat, cover and stew.

Notes

Sunday
Snowing
To R's for coffee
To Walmart got cream
Work on stuff
To new part of town. Peruvian dinner. Snowing walking holding hands!


Monday
Bookkeeping and emails. C comes. To s and s deli. Split sandwich. Relax time. To Druid for pork chop in syrup reduction. Packing.

Tuesday
Oatmeal.  Train to NYC
The heiress tickets
Lunch on train
Subway pass for seven days
Edison
QI
Silver lining

June.       19
Hotel.
Tickets heiress

C
Lunch on train.  7.50
Subway week.  28.00
Dinner.  14.00
Movie. 11.00

Sat Feb 2: More Winter?

Fitbit Stats: Over 10K!  (12659 steps taken, 2 floors climbed, 5.29 miles traveled, 2315 calories burned)

Woke late again when the someone called.  I didn't pick up in time as I was asleep, it was the president of the professional organization I do a lot of work with - there was going to be a meeting with her and the new treasurer today.  Wish I had known ahead of time I would have gotten some stuff in order for it.  Oh well.  I called her later she said she was pleased with the meeting and it seems all in well, so that's good!

Ordered the Simplicity pattern that was out of stock at the store yesterday (4025)  - it will be delivered Feb 5th - too late for me to make for NYC trip but I hope there will still be some winter here so I can make it and wear it lots! ** Some patterns can be ordered now so they can be printed out - pretty cool for people in a hurry with a printer, etc.  I didn't notice if they were available at a discount.  I'm getting my pattern for about 30% off the printed price - that's including the postage!

I made oatmeal with bananas - and went out for my day.

The main points are that I got info on a hair place, went to Target to get some stuff.  Tried on a million tops - when I left it was dark outside! I bought one but might return it....(since it's to hevy to wear in San Diego).  I didn't do the short cut as the lights were burned out so walked around to get to Shaws for dinner food.

Chicken Curry

DH texted and offered to help so he made rice and diced two carrots and a potato.  We added an onion, the left over hot and healthy soup from yesterday, and one chicken breast.  Then a can of coconut milk and about 6 tablespoons of curry and 1/2 c chicken broth.  We served with coconut flakes, almond slices, apricot jam, diced apple, and cut up banana- oh and we split a piece of nan.  Very nice dinner and only took about 30 or 40 minutes to do this together.  (Have about half leftover now in freezer for another day!)

I flipped the pages of the Cambridge Adult Education catalog - they have the information on the website, but it's nice to see in print.  Most of the classes have already started so I can't take them - maybe they will have another set that I can sign up for after this first set is over - ten weeks.  They are really nice as they limit the number of attendees - would be a nice way to meet people and really get to know them as well as a new topic or skill or hobby!  Fingers crossed on that.  The classes in San Diego cost less but they cram in as many people as possible in each class - imagine trying to learn a foreign language with almost 200 other beginners!  Yuck and impossible.  DH and I are going to attend a game 'class'  they are offering.

C wrote that she would like to come over on Monday and stay the night before we leave for NYC on Tuesday.  That will be nice.

Flylady has changed her email program so I have been getting her emails again for a few days.  She has the control journals on her website now in WORD format so it's easier to edit - great idea.  This coming week is the kitchen and the Jan habit is to shine sink, the Feb habit is to declutter for 15 minutes a day.  So easy here since I have so little with me here!  It's delightful.

I do need to get back on track with all the bookkeeping.  Would be good to have done before C comes.  I bought a new notebook at Target, but forgot to get mechanical pencil.  I will work on getting that system in place here - will help when I get back to San Diego too.

It was a nice day to walk around, glad I was able to do that today...

** I realized just now that it is Groundhog Day 2013: No shadow for Punxsutawney Phil, so spring is around the corner - so I have to enjoy this bit of winter that is left.... darn!  I didn't want to be snowed in, but I wanted more days of snow and excuses to wear hats, gloves, mufflers and jackets!  I hope this doesn't mean the humid and hot weather will be earlier with coming too.....

Fri Feb 1: Over 10K and Mexican Food

I set up my fitbit today and recorded over 10K steps!  (Right now it's at 4.42 miles 2023 calories 10576 steps).

Hot and Healthy Soup/Atwoods

Ate at Atwoods - very nice place.  I had the Hot and Healthy soup and a 2 inch round sloppy joe slider. Soups was lentils covered with curried chick peas on one side and wilted spinach and broccoli on the other with toasted pumpkin seeds. Great combination.  DH had a real Cesar salad then cup of tomato soup and cheese sandwich.  All Yum.  The descriptions are not on their online menu - had more details.

Went back to Marshals to return the two jackets - no problem with that return.

To fabric store to look at patterns... There were two patterns that I thought might be good:

Simplicity 1719 - in stock but not best one as so full at the bottom.

Simplicity 4025 (not in stock)
Would be best one for me to make & wear!

 Couldn't decide, was chatting with the lady who works there and she gave me one of their discontinued dress patterns and suggested I study the directions to see if I could do it (after I told her the last time I sewed anything was 7th grade.  But as I type this I remember I used to sew clothes for DS before he went to pants with zippers - so much fun.  I would take one of the designs from the fabric and iron it on a t-shirt and then outline that with paint to make a little outfit.  It was like a 1/4 yard of material needed.  Dinosaurs, rockets, bears, watermelon seeds and more.  DS was so sweet to try all the pants on - the watermelon seed one I used a new pattern and they ended being way too big.  He said it was okay and went upstairs to put on several other pants and then stuffed the waist band of watermelon ones over in the top of the other pants so they wouldn't fall down and he wore them for 4th of July as he knew I had made them for that day.  Such a sweetie.  How could I forget that?)

On to Shaw's to get ingredients for DH to make stuffed mushrooms, probably got a few more items.  I know I picked out chocolate chip muffin mix - not sure what all he got!

Then we walked around Shaw's and went on the side of a big street - over a bridge to Target!  It was very close, but by then it was very dark and cold.

At Target I returned the hooks I got that were not for humid rooms - no problem with that return too!  Then we looked for new hooks, DH got socks (can't believe it he has been wearing the same pair since coming here) and toothpaste (can't believe it he bought a 6-pack at Costco the month before we left and left them in San Diego).  I found powdered cherry drink - now I can stop drinking all this 200 calorie a serving stuff that I have here - hurray! Looked for long shirts (wool or spandix) to go with my new longer jacket.  I found a few but will come back again without DH as it takes so long to try things on.

On the way back we cut thru a different neighborhood and came out just where we wanted to be - and as a bonus found a fast food Mexican place (across the street from the $25 a plate Mexican place) and grabbed a burrito and taco to eat at home - tasted very nice. Could have used a little more chili but the burrito was rolled the right way so every bite had a combination of all the foods inside the tortilla.  The taco had different sauce, nice cilantro and lettuce.

Checked my email, and Livemocha wrote they were not only refunding my $99.95 but were still giving me one year of gold key access!  Yeah Livemocha!  A few years ago when I was taking Italian lessons I found them and was really impressed with the trial version - now to actually have the gold key access will be wonderful.  Now though I want to work on German or Swedish or Spanish....