Happy Mother's Day

Just popping in to wish Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there and to share the little handcrafted goodie I received from Meg.

Best.Gift.Ever.

Houston We Have A Problem...

Let me clarify.  This most definitely qualifies as a First World Problem.


This girl......

has some serious sock issues.

'nuff said.

Finley Goodness

I returned from my trip to Jay's last evening.  I'm not partial or anything *wink* but little Finley just gets cuter every day.  I snapped this photo Tuesday afternoon as we were heading out for a walk.  I think I've texted it to just about everybody I know but it's too darned cute not to document here.

This dude LOVES his sunglasses.  :-)



There is something very unique with respect to my family when it comes to Little Fin.  It isn't evident from the above photo but if you look closely you may catch a glimpse in this one.

Figure it out?  This little guy's eyes are turning brown!  A brown eyed baby is our family is definitely a first.


On our last visit Meg and I introduced him to her favorite childhood DVD, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  We still have the disc but for anyone interested, it's now available on Netflix streaming.   Meg still loves Pooh (she bought him the stuffed Pooh before he was even born) and I have to admit, I too am a sucker for this movie.

He and I had a great time while Mommy and Daddy were working.  He's such a cute and fun little guy to hang with and I can't wait to see him again in two weeks.

On The Road Again...

This happened on Sunday.

It may not seem like much to most but 10,000 miles on a vehicle that I've owned for only eleven months is incredulous.  Before our trip to NC in March my Volvo had less than 7000 miles, the typical annual mileage for me. Between that trip, Grandma trips to Orlando and multiple Sisterly trips to Tampa, I have been quite the traveler these past six to seven weeks.  

As I mentioned yesterday, I returned from Tampa on Sunday.  This afternoon I will be traveling to Orlando to babysit Fin.  It's been exactly a month since I've seen the little guy so I'm really looking forward to the trip.  I will be back in Orlando in two weeks and expect to make another trip to Tampa before the month is out so I'm guessing my SUV will be flipping 11,000 by the time it reaches it's one year anniversary date.  That folks is a whole lotta JulieWorld miles.

Did Someone Say Martinis?

Meggie and I spent traveled to my sister's for the weekend.  This trip was a bit different from those of the past month in that we spent the majority of it playing rather than working.  It was a wonderful change of pace.

After dropping my nephew off at work, we girls made an afternoon of Ikea and Ybor City.  Neither of us bought much but we came away from Ikea with some good ideas and inspiration for the future projects.

I was last in Ybor City eighteen years ago so it was nice to visit again.  We lunched al fresco at Bernini's, an Italian restaurant in the heart of the district.   

The food and service were both excellent but of particular interest to the adults were the $2 martinis.

Hellooooooooo.......

They were ice cold and delicious.  Marry that with some unusually pleasant weather and it was a very delightful and much needed relaxing afternoon.

I'll Admit It....I'm a Geek

Humor me in my moment of geeky happiness.  I'm a labeler.  I've been a labeler for as long as I can remember.  If there's a gene for labeling, I have it.

To illustrate my point, here's a photo of a couple of books from my childhood Nancy Drew collection.  I received these books, and my first totally awesome label maker, for Christmas one year.

In case you're wondering, yes I still own these (photo hot off the presses) and yes, the Dymo labels are still adhered forty years later.  (I photoshopped out my maiden name for privacy sake.)

I was also big into labeling my records.  My spare bedroom closet houses all of my 45s from the 1970s.  They are all labeled in Sharpie with the month and year I purchased them.  If they weren't so buried I'd share a photograph, but I do have some 33 1/3 LPs on display in my scraproom that will illustrate my point.

This was an Easter gift from my parents.  I remember picking it out at Tempo (an old school Kmart-y type store) and because I was wise beyond my years *wink* I know that I was 12 years old at the time.

 

As an aside, we went to Chili's last night for dinner where we always play the electronic table top trivia game.  One of the questions in the "Old School" catagory was "What group sang "I Woke Up in Love This Morning"?  Duh...... Meg was a bit mortified when I decided to "sing" the lyrics but whatever.  LOL!!!


Another album on my wall is this one by Mac Davis.  I absolutely LOVED him too.

And yet another digression ....  I loved him so much that my parents took us to the Heart of Illinois fair to see him one hot summer afternoon.  We got there really early to get a good seat.  A family sat down near us and boy did they ever yak, yak, yak.  I don't remember how many of them there were but I do remember that their poor kid Larry could not get a word in edgewise. Everytime he tried to chime in to the conversation one of the other family members would say "Who cares Lar?" (Pronounced Lair)  I wish I had a dollar for every time we heard someone put that kid down that afternoon.  It soon became a favorite phrase in our household and still is to this day.  LOL!!!  ( I often wonder what became of "Who Cares Lair?")

Whew....all that to share with you my excitement over buying a new label maker.  ROFL!!!  I've had this one for several years and love it but it's very limiting in it's features.  (Only one font and font size, single line, etc, etc)

I just bought this one off of Amazon for $20.  It has features galore and in the words of Jay, "I'm Super Stoked!!!"

Naturally the first thing a labeler does when receiving a new label maker is to label it.  Duh.

Water, Water Everywhere

Randy and I were able to finally enjoy some time out on our boat last weekend. We bought our 21' Angler center console used about four years ago (chosen mainly for it's low maintenance properties) and it's been perfect for us.  We are fortunate enough to keep it in a dry storage marina only five minutes away so it's just a matter of showing up and asking them to put it in the water.  After that, it's "off we go."

We live in an area surrounded by waterways.  Most of the old bridges have been replaced with high spans but one drawbridge still remains.  Our boat will pass under it easily but the larger boats and sailboats require opening by the bridge tender.  The bridge was being lowered as we approached.

I snapped some photos as we were going under.

We spent a couple of very enjoyable hours just cruising the waterways before heading back to the docks.  Just as we do a "jump in and go" our return is as simple as "jump out and hose down."   (And by "we" I actually mean "Randy.") After we leave the dock master will put the boat back inside the building until next time.  It doesn't get much simpler than that.