Here, There, and Everywhere

It's high time I got back to blogging isn't it?

So much has happened since we last chatted that I've put off blogging only because I don't want to go on, and on; in other words, I've been editing in my head for days sorting out what you might want to know about.

Let's back up a week or so, shall we?

Friday afternoon Bruce came home early to load the car, and off we went to set up the show. This year the loading process was much improved, however, the heat was not. Still a furnace, interspersed with rain, which made for a slow process. Compounding that was that Bruce was not feeling top notch, having to stop and rest. Lisa, Danny, and Judy came by just about the time we were finishing. Danny looked excellent.


Show Highlights and Lowlights:

Lisa came on Saturday, Judy came both Saturday, and Sunday to help me mind the store
48 sales
Hot weather
Smaller crowd than hoped for, making the sales total all the more surprising
Patron Award, which merely meant that two patrons of the show bought canvases from me
Saturday evening party with excellent food and wine. Photography first place went to the same woman as last year: Swimmers
Judy answered her phone on Sunday afternoon---her father died--a call she'll always remember...Although expected, the actual moment is always a shock. Now we are not only sisters in law, but orphans as well. Obviously, this was the lowest light of them all.

Monday morning I quickly packed, and off we went to Connecticut, flying first class due to Mr. Peck's status as a three million miler with Delta. Nice flight, nice lunch, and the best part was while looking out my window, I saw first Manhattan, followed by colorful trees. I'd been wondering if there were still pretty leaves left. The temperature was around 50 degrees, a welcome respite from our temps still hovering around 90!

I've put together an album of pictures with captions if you care to click on the album, I believe they'll show that way. When the sun set on Monday evening, that was the last I saw of it until it was time to head to the airport on Thursday. Despite the weather, and Bruce working twelve hour days, I managed to enjoy myself. Bruce now has a GPS, which he insisted I use, frankly, I found the talking box to be a bit annoying. I expect I'm in the minority on that issue. Mostly I spent time at Yale, first in their Center for British Art, followed by their major collection, Museums. It rained from morning till night hampering my ability to take much in the way of pictures, as well as my normal routine of walking around to see what there is to see. I skipped going to the ocean because it was so gray and rainy, that I probably wouldn't have been able to tell where the sky met the water. After having lunch in a nice little Italian restaurant there was a slight break which allowed me to roam two streets. I was amazed at how colorful some of the old homes were painted; I've pictured one of them in the album. I have a suspicion that it helps when the long gray winters start to make a person crazy--a colorful oasis if you will.

Friday I did some much needed catching up around the house, ending the day with a nice dinner out with Bruce. You see, while in CT, we had dinner with others, so I wanted him all to myself for the night. That plan was foiled in a good way though because from our sidewalk seating we had three different couples we know stop to chat.

Saturday--slow as molasses market. Seminoles win in a nail biter! Halloween trick or treaters were few and far between. At nearly 10:00, a car pulled up, the doorbell rang, and a mother with two very young children announced their arrival. Bruce offered the candy bowl--the mother grabbed a huge hand full. Tacky.

Sunday--slowish market, but managed to eke out 12 sales. Early to bed, early to rise, and here we are. Bruce went back to CT for the inspection with an insanely early flight--5:30AM. See what I mean about early to rise?

This afternoon I'll be heading to City Hall for the calendar presentation. I'll let you know how it goes.
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Listening to: Model 500 - The Flow
via FoxyTunes

Morning Sun

Here is the new quilt with the morning sun streaming through the blinds. It's really a perfect match for our furnishings and the paint color of the room. The dust ruffle is still a work in progress. It's very challenging to find dust ruffles these day--maybe because of platform beds. I like having storage space under my bed, thank you very much.

I'm typing this on my brand new iMac. Let me tell you, I believe I'm already in love. The keyboard is super nice. Here's the most incredible part about this whole thing. Matt, of course, suggested I look at one. I was immediately amazed at the no cord business. I looked a few days ago and today Bruce said--just go get it. Well, he didn't have to tell me twice. I had a super nice young man as a salesman--Tom. That was my dad's name. At any rate, I was nervous about learning something new but I decided to give it a shot. Of course I knew that Matt could help me if I was in a pinch. I didn't know just how much. When I arrived home I sent him an e-mail in London--fortunately it wasn't too late at the time. He got right back with me and get this--he took control of my computer from London and loaded all my essentials, including this! It was so fun watching the screen change from this to that.

I spent a good part of yesterday burning all my pictures on DVDs so that I could put them on some new computer. My old one was running as slow as molasses. Bruce was appalled and wondered why I was putting up with it. Well--no longer. I'm so excited.

One thing though, there was about the biggest thunder and lightening storm happening during the final portion of my conversation with Matt. We had ended the meeting session on the computer when the storm starting picking up. It sounded like gun shots from the sky. Really spectacular. Unfortunately it kicked off the power and with that my beautiful new computer went dark.

Happily, it is back on now.

Thank God Bruce is safe. He was flying home from Ohio while the storm was lashing. Apparently he was in a small plane and drinks were flying; he went flying up himself and his head hit the ceiling of the plane. My poor baby. They diverted the plane to Tampa so now he won't be home till I'm not even sure. He called from there and said it was possibly the worst flight he's been on. As you can imagine he's been on plenty. He's worked for Darden for 15 years in November and traveled most every week all these years. He is amazing about it--he never lets the travel complications get to him. Fortunately Matthew has inherited that gene and just goes with the flow.