Just another day

Photo of the Day

2008-10-31T21:36:00.000-05:00

Went to Mountasia with my coworkers. One of the cool things about where I work is that every quarter we get an afternoon outing to "bond" as a team. These are just a few of the guys I work with. The best part...leaving work at 11:30.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-30T22:37:00.001-05:00

I know, I know, I know. So much for a photo every day. Life just seems to get in the way! Anyway, I finally finished a pair of socks that I was knitting for Shelby. I am off to making a pair of socks for Shane. I hope they turn out as well.

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2008-10-22T14:34:00.001-05:00

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Photo of the Day

2008-10-20T22:07:00.000-05:00

My mom decided I needed a little bit of fall on my dining room table.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-20T21:56:00.001-05:00

Well, life gets in the way of posting a picture every day, but I did manage to get a few pictures since my last post, so here they are.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Lone Star Preview, Marching Band Competition.

That would be my daughter in the middle.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-20T21:47:00.000-05:00

Friday, October 17, 2008

This is Vintage Park. I can't wait till more stores/restaurants move in. Tried out Fish City Grill and it was really good. I'll be going back again.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-20T21:41:00.004-05:00

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

This is Delila. Yes, yes, I know this is a male beta, but my daughter insists its name is still Delila, after the song....go figure.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

Just keep falling...falling...falling...

Far away from home

2008-10-11T19:18:00.006-05:00

One of the farthest places I have ever visited was Shanghai. This was not a vacation, but a business trip. Luckily, I did spent a few extra days there and got a guided tour of some of the smaller villages outside of Shanghai. On the very long (17 hour) plane ride to Shanghai, we flew over Siberia. It was absolutely mesmerizing to see such a vast cold rugged landscape. It looks as if nothing could survive there.

While there, I stayed in Pudong. The tallest structure in this picture is actually a TV tower. It lights up beautifully at night.

Across the river from where I stayed was The Bund. We actually travelled via taxi through a tunnel that ran beneath the river to get from Pudong to The Bund. Taxi rides are quite treacherous there and I felt like I was putting my life on the line every time I stepped in one.

There are many boats that travel up and down the river, most of which are lit up at night. At 10:00 PM; however, all boat lights are shut off.

This is how The Bund looks at night when it is fully lit up. This is the view from my hotel in Pudong looking across the river.

The last weekend I was in Shanghai, my coworker and I decided to take a guided tour to a few of the villages outside of the city. This was a typical home in the more rural areas.

We lucked out while visiting Zhouzhua because there was a festival being held that weekend. There were many performances that would not have normally been there. This guy was one of the street dancers.

I believe the dragons in this performance were protecting the orb the guy was holding.

There were so many bridges in the water village. I lost count of how many we crossed during our tour.

After visiting the water village, our tour guide took us to another village where we had a boat waiting for us to take us on another leg of our tour. We were allowed to visit one of the markets not usually seen by tourists and got an up close view of how the rural community lived and worked. This picture is of one of the villagers doing her laundry along the edge of the river. This makes me appreciate my conveniences so much more.

Shanghai and the rural villages that surround it couldn't be more different. The city is a shining example of the latest in technology while the villages are like stepping back in time. Visiting a place like this reminds me of how lucky I am to live where I do and reap the benefits of a democratic society.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-11T19:05:00.003-05:00

This is Ginger and she is crazy! She hops around like a rabbit when she gets excited, which is quite often.
This is Misty and she is stubborn. She is very prissy and doesn't believe she is a dog.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-10T20:32:00.001-05:00

Halloween is in the air! This was in the flower bed at my dentist's office. Cute, huh?
Happy Halloween!!!

Photo of the Day

2008-10-09T21:28:00.000-05:00

College Night for my daughter. So many schools, so much information, lots to consider.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-07T20:21:00.001-05:00

So, I'm totally addicted to the Twilight Series. I just finished Eclipse and now I'm starting in on Breaking Dawn.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-06T22:44:00.003-05:00

First off, I am posting 2 photos today. When I got home from work a HUGE (ok...maybe not huge, but big enough) spider ran across my living room and totally freaked me out. Of course, I thought to myself...oooh, I should get a picture. I tapped him with my foot as he was running by just to slow down his momentum and he curled up and played dead! I began to wonder if it may actually be dead, but I knew I had barely tapped him!

Since I was pretty sure he wasn't really dead, I placed a glass over him so I wouldn't have a spider running around my house. He still didn't move after another 20 minutes. So, I went to scoop him up into the glass to dispose of him and he freaked out on me. Of course I screamed, my husband laughed and I threw the glass back over the top of him. He decided playing dead was just not working out for him. I managed to work up the courage to slowly lift off the glass and get close enough to him to get an "alive" picture.

Don't ask what happened to him.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

My beautiful daughter waiting for her date to arrive to take her to Homecoming.

My Happy Anniversary

2008-10-03T22:18:00.004-05:00

OK, so this picture is from last summer, but you have to understand how difficult it is to get my husband in a picture, much less the two of us together in a picture! Anyway, today we celebrated our 22nd anniversary.

Hubby decided to surprise me by taking me out to dinner at Flemings Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. I must say that dinner was great and I especially liked the Calamari. It was by far the best I have ever had.

Photo of the Day

2008-10-03T22:13:00.000-05:00

I grabbed a last minute pedicure because my husband told me we had reservations for dinner @ 8:00 pm. He told me this at 4:45 pm and I was still at work!

Photo of the Day

2008-10-02T21:53:00.003-05:00

I LOVE candy corn. I would rather have candy corn than chocolate!

Photo of the Day

2008-10-01T22:34:00.002-05:00

I wish I would allow myself to play the piano for the pure joy of it and not stress so much about being perfect. Maybe if I allowed myself that, I would find the courage to actually spend the time to learn to play it! Luckily, my kids are uninhibited and I can at least enjoy hearing them playing it.

Photo of the Day

2008-09-30T18:58:00.000-05:00

This is my view for at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Photo of the Day

2008-09-29T23:05:00.006-05:00

So, I'm borrowing an idea from my sister, but she said it as OK because she borrowed it as well. I'm going to try to post a picture a day. These pictures will just be snapshots of my life. So, here goes.

What's wrong with this picture?

Seventeen days post Hurrican Ike, there are still non-functioning traffic lights. I hit 25 lights on my way to work every day and wouldn't you know the most MAJOR intersection I go through would be the one not working.

Places I've Been

2008-09-27T16:08:00.018-05:00

I thought I'd make things more interesting by posting pictures from places I've been. I have been fortunate enough to see a couple of amazing places. Some places are very far away from where I live, while others are quite close. There are many more places I hope to see over the remainder of my lifetime.

The first place I will share with you is the most beautiful place I have had the opportunity to see. Maui remains my all time favorite vacation spot.

This was the view from the top of our condo. The water is magnificent. It's slightly cool and crystal clear.

While we were there, we spent as much time in the water as possible. We went on a kayaking and snorkeling tour, another snorkeling tour and my son Shane and I went snorkeling again out in front of our condo. The turtles were my favorite. They would just swim up underneath you. They looked like they were flying.

Shane and I had the opportunity to try out Snuba, which is a cross between snorkeling and scuba diving. You breathe through a regulator and go under water like scuba, but your tank floats on the surface of the water and you are tethered by an air line. We went to a depth of 20 feet. I highly recommend it!

Shown above is one of the first stops we made on the Road to Hana (which you can see pictured in the photo below). This shot is overlooking the West Maui Mountains.

This is overlooking Hanamanu Bay. This is one of my favorite pictures. I have a poster of it in my cube at work so I can stare at it and daydream.

This is just a picture of my kids (plus my husband is way off in the background) walking along the shore of Big Beach.

I hope to make it back to Maui one day, hopefully when I have alot more time to spend there.

In the beginning

2008-09-26T17:28:00.000-05:00

What are my thoughts? Well, I thought, why not create a blog and blab to others about my mundane day to day activities. Maybe it will prompt me to be more creative, or more interesting if I must blog about it.

For my first entry, I actually wanted to post a knitting pattern, since the only ones who may come here and read this stuff are my fellow members of Ravelry. I decided to create a dishcloth pattern as my first try at creating a knitting project from scratch. Well, at least taking elements of other patterns and modifying it to a point to which I could call it my own. And here are my results:

October Haunted House Dishcloth

Instructions

Using Needle size US 7, CO 40 sts.

Top Border:

Row 1 & 3: *k1, p1; rep from * across
Row 2 & 4: *p1, k1; rep from * across

Main Pattern:

Row 1, 3 & 5: (K1,P1) twice, K32, (K1,P1) twice
Row 2 & 4: (P1, K1) twice, P32, (P1, K1) twice
Row 6: (P1, K1) twice, P11, K5, P16, (P1, K1) twice
Row 7: (K1, P1) twice, K15, P1, K3, P3, K10, (K1, P1) twice
Row 8: (P1, K1) twice, P9, K2, P11, K2, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 9: (K1, P1) twice, K7, P1, K6, P1, K7, P2, K8, (K1, P1) twice
Row 10: (P1, K1) twice, P8, K2, P6, K3, P5, K2, P6, (P1, K1) twice
Row 11: (K1, P1) twice, K5, P1, K7, P3, K7, P2, K7, (K1, P1) twice
Row 12: (P1, K1) twice, P7, K2, P6, K5, P6, K1, P5, (P1, K1) twice
Row 13: (K1, P1) twice, K13, P1, K1, P1, K8, P2, K6, (K1, P1) twice
Row 14: (P1, K1) twice, P6, K2, P8, K1, P1, K1, P13, (P1, K1) twice
Row 15: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P1, K4, P3, K4, P1, K3, P2, K6, (K1, P1) twice
Row 16: (P1, K1) twice, P5, K2, P4, K2, P3, K1, P1, K1, P3, K2, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 17: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P2, K3, P1, K1, P1, K3, P2, K4, P2, K5, (K1, P1) twice
Row 18: (P1, K1) twice, P5, K2, P3, K4, P2, K3, P2, K4, P7, (P1, K1) twice
Row 19: (K1, P1) twice, K7, P5, K5, P5, K3, P3, K4, (K1, P1) twice
Row 20: (P1, K1) twice, P4, K3, P3, K12, P1, K2, P7, (P1, K1) twice
Row 21: (K1, P1) twice, K6, P3, K1, P13, K2, P3, K4, (K1, P1) twice
Row 22: (P1, K1) twice, P4, K3, P2, K17, P6, (P1, K1) twice
Row 23: (K1, P1) twice, K5, P4, K1, P14, K1, P3, K4, (K1, P1) twice
Row 24: (P1, K1) twice, P4, K3, P4, K11, P1, K1, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 25: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P8, K1, P1, K1, P2, K4, P3, K4, (K1, P1) twice
Row 26: (P1, K1) twice, P4, K3, P4, K2, P1, K1, P1, K8, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 27: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P2, K2, P4, K1, P1, K1, P2, K4, P3, K4, (K1, P1) twice
Row 28: (P1, K1) twice, P4, K3, P4, K2, P1, K1, P1, K4, P2, K2, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 29: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P2, K2, P4, K1, P1, K1, P2, K4, P3, K4, (K1, P1) twice
Row 30: (P1, K1) twice, P4, K3, P4, K9, P2, K2, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 31: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P2, K2, P4, K1, P1, K1, P2, K4, P2, K5, (K1, P1) twice
Row 32: (P1, K1) twice, P5, K2, P4, K2, P1, K1, P1, K4, P2, K2, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 33: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P2, K2, P4, K1, P1, K1, P2, K4, P2, K5, (K1, P1) twice
Row 34: (P1, K1) twice, P6, K2, P3, K2, P1, K1, P1, K4, P2, K2, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 35: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P2, K2, P4, K1, P1, K1, P2, K3, P2, K6, (K1, P1) twice
Row 36: (P1, K1) twice, P6, K2, P3, K9, P2, K2, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 37: (K1, P1) twice, K8, P2, K2, P9, K2, P2, K7, (K1, P1) twice
Row 38: (P1, K1) twice, P7, K2, P2, K13, P8, (P1, K1) twice
Row 39: (K1, P1) twice, K22, P2, K8, (K1, P1) twice
Row 40: (P1, K1) twice, P8, K2, P8, K1, P13, (P1, K1) twice
Row 41: (K1, P1) twice, K14, P1, K6, P2, K9, (K1, P1) twice
Row 42: (P1, K1) twice, P10, K3, P3, K1, P15, (P1, K1) twice
Row 43: (K1, P1) twice, K16, P5, K11, (K1, P1) twice
Row 44, 46, & 48: (P1, K1) twice, P32, (P1, K1) twice
Row 45 & 47: (K1, P1) twice, K32, (K1, P1) twice

Bottom Border:
Repeat Top Border pattern above