What are you up to today? This week?

[Muriel]

Well a busy day working on the Village Hall. Some things just seem to go a whole load slower than I think they should! The Roofs are done apart from the top ridge on the main roof. Conservatory is built and just needs the downstairs floor and upstairs curtains - but will have to shop for them.

Still got the tower to go, need a bell for that!

[havanaholly]

DH decided he had a crave for chicken, and I had bought a small broiler at the store the other day, so soaked my clay pot and cooked it in that all afternoon. Man! it was tasty.

[Sherry]

No grandkids this week, after noon tomorrow. They are spending the week with their other granny. I now have every baseboard cleaned, surface dusted, toilet scrubbed, faucet, window and mirror cleaned til they shine. After the kids leave tomorrow...I MINI!!!

[heidiiiii]

WooHoo Sherry~

Enjoy every minute of it.

Natalie has been gone since Friday morning and will be back home tonite around 11pm est. Chelsea has been gone since 4 am this morning and will be back around 9=10pm. They both went to Philly for the Youth celebration for their Buddhist branches 80 yr anniversary.

It was great to have the house all to ourselves today. We both took a nap, watched movies, and I made an old *before we had kids* dinner, Beef Stroganoff. Sourdough bread and butter. Nice dinner for the rainy day today.

[Sherry]

How's Fred doing, anyway?

[Momof2Moos]

I did some trimming, and some trimming and did I mention the trimming? Trimmed hedges all over the place! Cayce had a friend over today for most of the day and they played really hard outside and went through, nearly a gallon of water each! Holly's right, hte heat indexes down here have been obnoxious (105ish and WET.) Ugh. I despise that part of Florida! While he was entertained I managed to get the house cleaned up and the laundry done. Then we went and did dinner with the family and I mini-ed with James' mom. We built, tiled, walled and ceilinged our Barber Shop room box....which will be displayed in the Barber shop. She is hard at work making barber chairs and I have all the measurements to make our counters and sinks. We also scrounged around in the fabric container to find the perfect stuff for my curtains....it wasn't there. Now before bed, I will work on the candle chandelier for the dining room.

[havanaholly]

You lucky duck! You have a mini buddy! Not fair!!!

[Anna]

Having one of those "slow" days today as we woke up to rainy weather today which sort of spoiled what we had planned to do outside around the house but that is OK, we can use one of those days as well

Tomorrow is back to work again, where did the time go huh??? But that to is prettty OK I suppose.

I have been trying to locate some of the mini-ing stuff today as well, found my cutting mat and steel ruler so that is a plus, have found the glue bottle and glue stick as well so that is great, now I only wish I could find the box that holds all my paints and brushes...

Hugs

[Sherry]

Good luck with finding everything. Isn't that frustrating when you can't find all your toys?

[Anna]

Good luck with finding everything. Isn't that frustrating when you can't find all your toys?

Thank you, and it IS annoying, but also a bit fun as one never knows what might be hiding in the particular box you are opening. Atleast if it has been hubby who packed it...

Hugs

[Sherry]

I've noticed that men tend to just throw things in any box instead of organizing by room. And they usually don't label where the box goes, so you end up with things at the wrong end of the house!

Off to church now, with Celeste tucked in my purse. A little preaching might do her good! Then home to make fajitas on the grill and finish spackling the DC.

[havanaholly]

We went out last night to a concert we got an email about around lunchtime; it was a farewell concert for the bass player in a local combo, and admission was a cash donation to the Gulf Marine Specimens lab in Panacea, which is trying to get BP to give them enough $$$ to expand to house all the shore & estuarine critters smaller than the sea turtles & dolphins protected by the State; the sea snails and crabs and anemones and all the other members of the food chain that the oil spill is killing off. BP wants to pay to restore areas already damaged (and all the little critters & several larger ones already dead & gone), rather than to save what the oil hasn't killed yet that are irreplaceable. We enjoyed what we could hear of the music; the American Legion was packed to the rafters and very few people there who weren't keeping up a running conversation, LOUD. I was naughty, the last piece the bassist played a duet with the other lady in the combo and it was very soft, and the ladies next to me had finally shut up; but the people on the other side of DH had taken up the slack in volume. The lady next to me mumbled loud enough for me to hear, "Oh, just shut up!" and I, unable to resist, mumbled "Looki who's talking" in reply.

Today I've begun cutting and stitching 1:24 servants' liveries.

I have chicken thawing for supper tonight and a rack of babyback ribs for DH's birthday dinner tomorrow.

[grazhina]

My daughter is up here for a visit. We went to the outlets where I bought a pie bird, not that I make pies anymore, but I hadn't seen a ceramic piebird in years and it was only $3 so I couldn't resist. Maybe I'll bake some pies. I could make a blueberry one, all for me, my son and DH won't touch blueberries.

Ashley also wanted to check out antique shops, and I found a 110 year old book for Victorian housewives in great condition. The woman hadn't planned on selling it, it was supposed to be just part of a display, she didn't know how it wound up out in the open, but she said she saw how carefully I was leafing through it so she decided to let me buy it. Cool.

Last night my DD made us dinner, yippee, and she's planning on making dinner tonight too, hooray! I avoided making dinner another night because we came home late so we picked something up. In the last few days I've made just 2 simple breakfasts! we even had breakfast out one morning, yippee!

I sure hate to cook, so why did I buy the American Woman's Cookbook 1958 version at another antique shop? It's just because that was the first cookbook I ever read. My mother had the WW2 era one with Victory recipes in it for meatless days.

Today she's spending the morning hiking with her brother and she wants us to drive up to Joann's Fabrics to check it out. She quilts and has no Joann's near her in Philly. She's looking for some fabric bargains.

[Sherry]

I just have to post this picture here, since I know most of you don't read the traveling doll thread. But this is just too cute! This is one of the greeters at church, meeting Celeste. ( and yes, she spent the time during the service tucked away in my purse...but I did leave it open so she could hear, and she even sang the hymns she knew the words to!) As you can tell, he got a kick out the whole thing!

[havanaholly]

Oh, Grazhe, blueberries are chock full of antioxidants! One of the biggie fruit crops in FL (after citrus) are berries, and when the grocery stores get in the fresh strawberries and blueberries, I grab some and run! DH & I love fresh cobblers and shortcakes.

[grazhina]

Oh, Grazhe, blueberries are chock full of antioxidants!

Yeah, and they're like the national fruit of Lithuania, and the main fruit associated with Maine! I love blueberries, and blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes and blueberry syrup and blueberry pie and blueberry cobbler, and I grew up eating New Jersey blueberries, yum.

[KathieB]

I have been fighting a computer virus -- the Antivir Solutions Pro. It grabs your internet connection and most of the .exe program files and keeps putting up dire warnings of doom and gloom if you don't buy its antivirus program. Ha! I found a website that told me how to kill and remove it, which I did yesterday. After a few hours of use today, it came back. Am taking the computer to the guru tomorrow and let him do a professional purge. I'm fresh out of black candles and goat's blood.

(Am running in Safe Mode right now. Everything looks really weird!)

[havanaholly]

Ew, Kathie! Sounds nasty!

I'll be dressing the 1:24 cook & valet today & cooking dinner for my Birthday Boy! Also letting him have the computer all day, if he wants it, so may not be back today.lol

[Starfire]

Been cleaning house and trying to catch up with e-mail and snail mail that piled up while we were gone to NAME and on the Alaska cruise. Got lots of pictures but will have to load them on the computer before I can share any. Got lots of goodies at NAME and shipped them home so we would not have to carry them home. They arrived the day after we got home and I only checked to see that the items were OK.This years national was very heavy on quarter scale projects and in the sales room. Both classes I took were for a beautiful little garden and a tudor bed and table. On the cruise took a class that was for a 1/12 gold rush dressed doll dress form and a trunk . Finished the dress but still have to complete the trunk. We flew back on the red eye from Seattle and neither one of us were very good for anything for a couple of days. It was really hard getting over the jet lag.

Did the laundry on Wed and pretty much crashed Thursday. Did major grocery restocking trip Saturday and trying to figure out where all the food went that we got for DD and the three dogs while we were gone. There must have been some parties. lol. Also stripping the dog beds and washing them. They really smell doggy and do do the dogs. Will see if DD can throw them in the tub and give them baths. The rugs in the family room and master bedroom have been vaccumed and will try to shampoo them later this afternoon. We have had a couple of days of good weather but now it is back to hot and humid and even Fabreeze cannot refresh them.

I got my birthday gift early. A MAC book Pro. DH decided I deserved one after working with my 10 year old ibook that I inherited from DD2 when she bought her new one for school. It has been upgraded a few times with more memory, larger hard drive, various software and periodic visits from our local professional geek. It is slow and has developed a few problems but don't we all when we get older? It has been crashing with AOL more often but I don't know if that is a hardware or software problem and told DH I was going to send it out to the computer hospital. I was perfectly content to live with it a bit longer especially after the money we spent for the trip and I spent on miniatures, but he said he was tired of watching me creep through some of my computer efforts. Right now it is sitting there attached to our network and I am trying to migrate all my data from the old to the new with very little luck so a call went out to our geek asnd he will come in later this week and do his magic.

All in all it has been an interesting couple of weeks.

[kandykidsaturn]

I had to go back to work. I'm a teacher, and the kids start back next week.

Granted I taught summer school, but it was only 12 half days scattered through the summer. It wasn't that bad.

Ungh, this is really going to cut into my sitting around time.

[Sherry]

We have two more weeks after this one. Since I just substitute now, I don't have to go until the kids do!!

[Momof2Moos]

I have been distracted from this thread!

There was lots going on today. After this weekend I had a lot of cleaning and rearranging to do. I might quite a hefty acquisition of items going through the inlaws garage. I got told if I wanted it, to take it home.... and there was a lot of stuff I hoovered. I didn't get around to putting any of it away until yesterday.... and that required lots of moving of furniture (to accomodate large dresser I got and bench toy box for the boys).... Moving the couch, I realized the floor was totally ick.... so everything got moved around and the entire floor was scrubbed. Today was full of laundry. 3 loads of clothes and towels and another load of diapers/wipes.

I squeezed in some mini work while the kids were napping. Charlie is teething and clingy, so everything else is being done with him clung to me like a spider monkey. (including this). Bed time cannot come quick enough!!!

[Sherry]

I am soooo tired of sanding spackle! But the vigas are glued on, so I can spread joint compound around them and on the roof trim, which is also on. The porch posts and roof are ready to attach, and the window frames are cleaned off. Just gotta sand......and sand.....and sand!

[havanaholly]

I made Miss Florence's cap and dressed Mrs Humphries; started George's shirt and then three of the four servants will be done & DRESSED! I'm tempted to play with clay again tomorrow, my hands are starting not to hurt.

[sparklepuppies]

No shingling for me tonight. The boys start school tomorrow, and no matter how much I prepared this week, there was still a jillion things to do tonight. Open house was this morning, squeezed that in during work today (where school started today), then football practice, dinner, and labeling and packing stuff. After dinner I realized I haven't made it to the store yet, and we had no food for lunches. Sooo, I got to go grocery shopping at 9:30 tonight. I am so tempted to go over and put on just one row of shingles... I am exhausted though, and since I have to get up earlier than usual tomorrow to take them to school, I really need to head to bed. I can shingle tomorrow.