Coming to You...

Live behind my new laptop!

Woo!

I'm still getting used to it so if you see a bunch of typos, it's cuz this keyboard feels very different from my old one.

I should probably explain what happened to my old laptop. I usually keep it on the floor in front of my recliner. It's usually out of the way. Well, I had borrowed something from a friend and had company over one night and when I tried to step over my laptop (since the borrowed something and my friend was in my way), I stepped on my pantleg and couldn't step wide enough to clear the laptop and I ended up stepping on my laptop instead. That was not a good night. I was unbelievably upset! The screen had cracked and crystals were leaking all over the place. The laptop works but the monitor is pretty jacked up. So if you learn anything from me, don't store your laptop on the floor cuz you might step on it and jack everything up. What a mess! So now, I have a new laptop I have to learn. And no, it's not a Mac. I wish it was! But the $900 I saved by not buying a Mac will go into whatever new car I end up buying. Sometimes, you have to make sacrifices like that. In the end, I know whatever car I buy will last me longer than any laptop so it's best to invest the money there.

When I went to Best Buy Friday night, I wasn't sure what to expect. My old laptop is a Toshiba and I loved it. It would have lasted me at least another year if I hadn't stepped on it like a dumbwit. But all the new Toshibas have 10-keys now which is all fine and dandy is you're an accountant or have an Excel fetish. I had my criteria...no Dells and no Compaqs. I was deciding between an HP and a non 10-key Toshiba. And I bought the HP. Why? Because it's prettier. Navy with a interesting pattern and a cool built-in screensaver with more artistic applications. Yea...I'm a girl. I like quirky and I like interesting. I am hoping that picking HP won't be a mistake. I managed to convince a guy friend to help me set up the new laptop so it saved me from having a fit and my head exploding. Even with him knowing what he was doing, it took almost 3 hours. Left to my own devices, you all would have read about me in the paper. "After many hours, California woman , 35, had conniption fit and caused a melee in an attempt to get her new laptop setup. Casualities yet to be determined." I still have a bit of computer stuff to deal with though which will go into next weekend. I need to make sure all my files from my last two laptops are saved and recycle them plus I am thinking of switching internet providers. AT&T has gotten too expensive and I am thinking of switching my internet to Comcast and my phone service to Vonage. If anyone has any experience with either, I'd love to hear about it.

So the stitching! Here's my progress on Mary Wigham.
I've completed part 3 with that last motif going into a good part of Part 6. I complete 3 large motifs (gold, blue, ivory), 2 small ones (green, pink) and 2 sets of initials. I had a hard time with the gold motif and the blue one. The gold motif was frogged once. Half because the dyelot blended into the fabric too much and half because of counting errors. The blue motif was a pain. There are major symmetry errors in that one and I had to correct them. Plus, it called for blue and black and I changed it to blue and dark blue. I think it looks nicer that way. So far, it may be once of my favorite motifs despite the headaches it gave me. I am now a third of the way done. Woot! I hope the next section is easier than Part 3!

Here's how it looks so far.
Please excuse the wrinkles and the blurriness.

I also started A Wish for You from my AotH series. I think I will do something a little different with the personalization here. Still deciding. But in the meantime, I'm building the house.
I love the little shamrocks. Deep down, beneath all the latin fire, I identify Irish. Dark hair, pale skin, freckles and an affinity for bangers and guinness. Yep, I fit right in. So I am really enjoying this block. I think I will work on it for a couple more nights before I have to set it aside for some secret stitching.

And last but not least, my TUSAL update.
This time Giggles is modeling my TUSAL jar. It's slowly growing. Lots of orts from Mary and AotH.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Obviously most of mine was occupied by laptop buying, set up, visiting the ailing parents and doing lots of laundry. I did go try a new restaurant yesterday though. I read a lot of local food blogs and newsletters. A while back, a southern place opened up in Oakland that I was curious about but in the last couple of months, the same place opened a second location in the city. So Sunday, I trekked over to the nitty gritty Tenderloin to see what this place was all about and encountered a wait about 40 people deep. That isn't uncommon here. San Francisco is full of foodies waiting to try the latest great thing. So Claire and I took a walk and encountered Philz Coffee. Another place familiar to me through my foodie newsletters. What an interesting coffee shop. There is no "house" coffee here. Philz is about brewing individual fresh cups of coffee. There is a menu with about 30 different blends...medium, chocolatey, herbal, spicey, dark. In the end, I picked a turkish blend with cardamon. Cardamon in coffee?! I had to try it and it was good. Different...but good. Fueled with caffeine, we continued our walk and headed back and we were still faced with a wait. That's ok...time to people watch. We saw some very interesting people. I think I saw a guy dressed as a girl in a very short catholic uniform skirt. Shorter than I ever rolled mine up! This place certainly attracted a mishmosh of interesting people. It's what makes San Francisco what it is. When we finally got in, we had a wonderful meal at Brenda's. We split granny apple with caramel butter beignets and I had a hangtown fry (oyster, bacon and scallion scramble) with potato hash and toast. Claire had an andouille sausage omelet with grits and those may have been the best grits I've ever tasted in my life. Mind you, this isn't the place for a diet and you may need a nap after eating here! OMG, with only eating half, I got so tired and drowsy! That's ok though. The leftover beignet was breakfast and the leftover scramble and potatoes was dinner! I think I better go to the gym a couple of times this week to work some of this off!

Well, that's it for me. Time to lay a little more brick on my house. Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Until next time...