Lazy Sunday

The cats have settled in well. I caught them sleeping together today. Life is hard huh?


It has been cold and cloudy here today. This afternoon I saw the Lincoln Lawyer. It was pretty good. Michael Connolly is one of my favorite authors. I love Harry Bosch. I discovered him about 13 or 14 years ago on audio. The great thing about audio books is that my husband listens to them too so we have a lot to talk about. The other thing about audio books is that we listen to things that either of us mightily read. The next movie we want to see is Water for Elephants, we both listened to that one too.



The cats love playing. I have found soda caps floating in their water dish.
I am making headway on my exchange piece. I need to do some more stitching now.

Have a peaceful evening and thanks for coming by.

Chris
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Saturday?

Dear friends,
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope your week has gone well. The week has flown by. I have been training at another site to do the patient assistance at that location. They use a very complex spreadsheet and I have really no excel experience. Needless to say I have been mentally exhausted. Next week I start doing that position 3 days a week, wish me luck. It is a 40 hr a week position and I will be trying to do it in 24. Well at least it is a job. The department may be gone as of July 1st. Stressful :)
I have been working on an exchange piece so I don't have stitching to show. I went to hobby lobby this morning to try and find some backing fabric but did not find anything so on to plan B?



It is spring here in NC. Sorry that I can't figure out to rotate this picture. This is from my garden. The dogwoods are blooming. It looks like snow outside my bedroom window. This time of year it looks different outside every day, a little greener, some new color.
Today is grey and cloudy. We had to run some errands this morning and I baked some banana bread and made a big pot of minestrone. Now maybe I will do some stitching....or catch up on my blog reading!



Have a great evening.


Chris
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Another Weekend

Hello friends,
I hope that everyone had a wonderful spring weekend. Friday it was in the 80's, Saturday the 70's and today the 50's. The redbuds are blooming and the trees are budding and starting to show some green.
I have spent the last 2 weeks learning another job. Someone is leaving and they want me to do her job which is a 40 hour a week job in 24 hours and the other days to do my other job. Lucky me. Right now they don't know what jobs we will have or where they will be come July 1, so in the scheme of things I guess that I will just roll with it. The good thing about the new position is that I can work thru lunch and leave at 4 and get home a little earlier.
I did get a little stitching done for my exchange but cannot show it:)
Rich and I headed up to Cherokee on Friday afternoon. We stopped at Jaybee's for hot dogs, yum!



Saturday morning we got up and headed out for a hike. The weather was perfect and the trail we chose was a long a beautiful creek.






After that we drove the national parkway over to Gatlinburg. It was a beautiful day for a drive.



When we got to this point the fog rolled in. We could see it from the road coming up the mountain. Guess that is why they call them the Smokies.
Gatlinburg was packed as usual. We got our bucket of Karmelkorn and headed back to Cherokee to get a shower and head over to the casino. we were going to have dinner there at the buffet or at the Paula Deane restaurant but we weren't hungry due to the Karmelkorn.
The concert was REO Speedwagon. I have seen them about 4 times over the last 3 years. This tour was the 30th anniversary of the Hi-infidelity album and they played a lot of songs off the album. Quite a few that I have never heard live before.



They always put on a good show. The new events center at the casino is very nice. I would go see a show there again.



We played some slots but didn't win. The casino is on an Indian Reservation so they allow smoking.....yuck! It is amazing how much this bothers me now.
After the concert we left the casino and had some Taco Bell. It was too late to have a big sit down meal.
This morning it was hop in the car to head home. So much to do to get ready for the week! Grocery shopping, cooking, laundry! Hopefully this week I will make some progress stitching!
Have a great week. And always thanks for stopping by and for all your kind words.

Goodnight!

Chris
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Utsunomiya & Japan On My Mind

As the news reports and pictures keep coming in on this tragedy I continue to think about many of the wonderful people I came to know and places and things I got to see when I was an exchange student in Japan in the 80's.
I was a student in Utsunomiya, a city a couple of hours north of Tokyo and in the center of the island. I have not been able to find any reports on that city except for some gas shortages, so I guess that they were spared. I did not keep in touch with the friends that I made during that time. Over the years I have written but letters that I sent have been returned. I still consider that time and those people to be so important in my life. I learned so much living there. It was an amazing experience.
Please keep Japan in your thoughts and prayers.

Chris


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Distractions

This is a fierce looking cat. Boy, does he love to play. He also loves to be in your lap. We have decided to name him Beau, short for Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, one of our favorite movie characters. Beau is doing great and has settled in well. We have decided to name the other one Binx, named after the cat in Hocus Pocus. Binx is wide open. He is always  running around, jumping Beau or finding some other trouble to get into. Binx wants to try and get under the covers with you so then gets locked out of the bedroom. I think that they are both happy and content. I spoke with our vets office on Thursday to give them a heads up that we would be bringing pizza for lunch on Friday and they were very glad to hear that the cats were settling in.

I have to learn to put things up. Rich and I got home late last night. We went to Charlotte to see Sharon Jones and the Dap kings. They put on an amazing show. Anyway we got home late and slept in and came downstairs to find the living room covered in string. I had left a spool of DMC pearl cotton on the coffee table. They must have chased it for hours because it had traveled everywhere and back and forth across the living room.  Not much was left on the spool. Funny!
   I am actually going to try and do some stitching now. Every one is sleeping :) Wish me luck!
As always thanks for stopping by and all your kind comments.

Goodbye February! Welcome March!

Hello Friends.
   I know that I have been pretty quiet. I have been trying to read the blogs but I have not really even had time to return phone calls or emails. I don't like it. I guess that I have just been over committed between my jobs and my other commitments. I have to get through work tomorrow and then I don't have any nights at my second job this week or other commitments and I am off next weekend. Yahoo!
  So I am planning to stitch and take care of some things at home. Rich's birthday is next Sunday so I want to make one of his favorite dinners. We are going to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings next Friday night and REO Speedwagon the following weekend. Yes, I will be singing a long at the top of my lungs :)
   Today Rich and I ran our morning errands and then headed over to our vets. We got a call on Monday from Darlene who had 2 young cats that she wanted us to come see and consider adopting. So today was meet and greet and of course we now have 2 new additions to the family.

This is the first boy. He is about 5 months old and is a lean high energy guy. They have been here about 5 hours and he runs right up to you and goes to sleep around your neck purring. He is not shy at all. Apparently he had been adopted before but brought back, long story. I think he has found his forever home. Now we just need to give him a name. I think he is more dark brown than black.

This is the second cat. He is under a year old and was hit by a car and has a broken leg that is healing. He is just a little gimpy now. The vet wasn't sure of the whole situation but it sounds like it wasn't a good one. He is long haired and has a gray ruff. He is sweet and affectionate but he and the other one are measuring each other up and he is slinking around. I lay down for awhile and both were on the bed with me. They are both very affectionate. When we adopted Sable and Lex they were 7 years old and were not affectionate or lap cats, you couldn't pick them up. These 2 seem much different.

They are fixed and up to date on all their shots and the vets office didn't charge us an adoption fee just sent us off with a bag of cat food. They will be getting a pizza delivery this week from us :)
I hope this week goes well. Hopefully next time I can give you some names.

This is all that you will see of this since it is for an exchange. I have not stitched at all the last 2 weeks. So I have put away MA Tipper until this is done. It is fun for me to stitch with some other colors for a little while.

So today was a day to stay in, no hike this week. I think that I need to get over this fatigue. I dusted all my jars and the living room, took a nap and made this for dinner. This is Green Chile pork stew from Better Homes and Gardens. Very easy and pretty yummy. It will be appearing again on our menu.

So that's it from here. I hope that the funk is behind me.

Have a great weekend!

Hugs!