Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

It is gorgeous here, warm and sunny. I think we are to get some rain starting tonight though. Just as long as it isn't pouring and I can get my walks in, I don't care about the rain.

I got an email from my niece this morning. She her husband and dd will be here on Friday for a soccer tournament my grandniece is in. We are all going to get together on Friday night at Corky's (a famous BBQ place here in Memphis) for dinner. My dd, sil and my little scooter pie are coming too. It will nice though fattening. Jack and I will have to work hard the rest of the week following especially since we leave on Thursday the 28th for Indina. Luckily, Jack gets to take comp time for some weekend work he did a couple weekends ago so we get to leave at 9 AM instead of 3 PM. The afternoon would be driving all night and at our age, that ain't fun. This way, we should be at my son's house around 9 PM their time with any stopping. We are taking sandwiches and snacks so we can keep to our points instead of doing restaurants.

Jack is going to have funny time off. He will have Thur-Monday off, work Tues, off Wed (memorial holiday for MLK's death the city employees get the day off,) work Thur, off Friday for Good Friday. We are going to go out and have breakfast Easter morning with dd, sil and grandson then go back to their house and let T hunt for eggs and I will give him his Easter basket from us. I bought him this cool, green plastic popcorn basket with movie size boxes of Reeses pieces, Smarties, a huge can of Doritos, a big chocolate bar and a big Crunch bar, 2 things of popcorn, a lamb Pez despenser, an M and M cylinder with the Red M and M key chain on top, the movies Flushed Away and Barnyard and $10 in movie certificates. I like to get him stuff other than regular Easter stuff as he gets three other baskets of that kind of junk.

The following Tuesday I leave for Little Rock to meet my sister that lives in California. Her inlaws live near Fort Smith and they are flying in for vacation to see them. She is going to drive to Little Rock for her birthday and we are going to hang out all day, shop, swim at the hotel pool etc. spend the night than go our separate ways again. I am going to buy her a little cake and we will have our own birthday celebration. Years ago we worked for the same law firm and used to go to Chinese buffets for lunch at least twice a week so we are going to go to a Chinese buffet for lunch that is only a mile or so from the hotel. Like old times. I do miss her. I haven't seen her in 18 months. It will be nice to just be us girls.

I am about halfway done with the front panel on my cardigan. I had trouble with understanding the directions, then felt stupid when I ask at KH what I was doing wrong. The directions aren't very clear and it is supposed to be an easy pattern so it should have had clearer directions about the V-neck decreases.

I guess I better sign off for now. I have more knitting I need to get done and other stuff I could be doing.

Donna

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder???

Sorry I haven't posted for over a week, but I accidently dropped my digital camera in the washer with a load of clothes (I had put it in the clothes basket to carry it downstairs with me and forgot it was in there) and now it is more than likely kaputs! I am sending it to Atlanta to a camera store there to get an estimate as to whether it can be repaired, but we aren't holding out hope. This is a bad time for my camera to go belly up with the shower in less than two weeks and the baby's birth in less than 3 months. Ah well, just have to go back to using the film camera for now I guess.

Hope all is well with all my other blogging buddies! Jack and I are going great guns at WW. He has lost 16 and I am down 18 as of Friday. I changed WW centers and really like this one much much more. I enjoy going to the meetings here and didn't at the other. It was basically all one ethnic group of which I was not one of them so they ignored me and only visited amongst themselves even when I tried to be friendly. Made me mad and I left and didn't go back.

So our favorites, Texas Tech, New Mexico State (Jack's alma mater), and Indiana have now lost their NCAA games. We have Tennessee and Memphis (my school) still in it and playing today so I sure hope at least Memphis wins. I would love Memphis to go all the way and show the big boys how it is done!

I finished the ribbon top, but without the digital can't take a pic of it right now. I also have the back of my matching cardigan finished and half the left front so am going to town on it. I still have the fancy blue ribbon top for vacation to start yet, but I am going to wait until I finish the cardigan. I am going to my favorite LYS in Indiana while I am there and see if I can find yarn for the sweater I am making T for Christmas. I want to do maybe navy and white striped or a hunter green and white. Both would look good with that red hair.

Everyone have a great Sunday!

Donna

Countin' Down the Weeks...

I now have less than three months until the baby gets here and only 24 1/2 weeks until vacation and we leave for Vegas. I am back in the watch anything on TV that shows the strip mode so I can get all excited about it. I checked on rental cars and can get a fair deal, but am waiting until their weekly coupon special comes out for that period of time. I would love to rent a convertible, but all they have is a PT cruiser and I would feel ridiculous in that car. They used to rent Sebring convertibles. So we will just get what we always get a Pontiac G6. I love driving the strip late at night. It is so cool! Earlier in the evening it is always bumper to bumper traffic all along the strip with people hanging off of trucks or out of car or SUV windows, but late it is just enough traffic not to be bothersome, all those hangers are in the clubs getting soused so you can just enjoy the palm trees, the lights and what the strip makes you feel like. We don't stay on the strip and always rent a car so we have more freedom to go places. It would cost more in cab fees than to rent a car for the week even with valet parking. I am also waiting to get a deal on the car park where we leave our car here at home. It is hard to get a cab in the middle of the night here and we will have to be at the airport by 4 am so it is easier and more convenient to just park the car at the car park and ride the shuttle to the airport. They usually have prepaid deals but again they don't have them posted that far in advance yet. We do have our hotel reservation and have our first class tickets (our real splurge and why we stay at off strip hotels.) I can buy our show tickets the first of May, which I will do, then little by little get these other things taken care of. I have already bought a portable dvd player (we have one for the car that hangs on the seat etc, but it is too big to take) for us, Jack has his I-Pod and I have a cd player to keep us busy. I always take at least two books too. It is a 5 hour flight from Atlanta, which seems ridiculous to fly from Memphis to Atlanta, like we are going backwards, but that is their hub so to Atlanta we go. Five hours even for a thin person is a long time to sit.

I ran out of ribbon for my top so had to order one more ball. I have like 16 rows and would have been finished. Isn't that the way it always is. I am coming along on my peach cardigan while I wait for the new ribbon to come in.

I ordered some muffins from a company called Vitalicious. Comments were really good about the chocolate ones and though they are a bit pricy, over a $1 apiece, they are a 2 pt muffin and WW users seem to love them. I will let you know when they come in and I have tasted them. Hope I didn't waste $30!

I saw on AOL that John Inman died sometime today. They said he had been ill with Hepatitis A for a long time. He was the hilarious Mr. Humphries on the British comedy, "Are You Being Served." He was a very funny man but they said he was suffering a lot from the disease.


Donna's Chocolate Raspberry Muffins Makes 6 muffins (2.5 ww points each)
1/8 c egg beaters
1 C Heart Smart Bisquick
1/2 c skim (fat free) milk
1/3 c Splenda
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon oil (you can cut the fat by using unsweetened applesauce, but I didn't have any)
1/2 C Raspberries (if using frozen, thaw the slightly first and then pat them dry with a paper towel to remove excess water)

Heat oven to 400 degrees, fill 6 muffin cups with paper cups, mix all but raspberries together well with a whisk then gently add raspberries. Fill cups 2/3 full, bake for 9-11 minutes, let cool 5 minutes! Enjoy with a dollop of cool whip free.

Well, I hear Jack upstairs showering so time to go up and make the bed, shower and get dressed for the day!

Everyone have a super day!

Donna

Money Just Seems to Fly Out the Window...

Sheesh, there is so much going on and of course it all costs $$$$. I have bought my sil's leather handbag for her birthday, but still have to get her a gift card at the request of her brother. Bless her heart, she has terrible taste in clothes, dresses like she is 70 years old. I took her to buy some clothes when she was here for her brother's surgery. I picked out this gorgeous wine colored sweater set and a broomstick skirt with grays, blacks and wines in it. She wore it to the hospital the next day...with Rheeboks! Then, there is Easter and I have to get an Easter basket for Thomas and talk to dd about what she wants to do about Easter as we will be gone the weekend before to go to the baby shower. I have my son and dil's anniversary on April 10th and I am going out of town to Little Rock that day to meet my sister for her birthday and have a girl's day and night. I have to rent a car to go and am paying for the hotel room for us. I haven't seen her in a year and a half as she lives in California so I am anxious to see her just the two of us. When we are alone, we have such fun.

I am now almost finished with the ribbon top. I have about 4 inches and then I can sew up the shoulders and see if it is a total mess. I am hoping I don't run out of ribbon before I finish it. I also cast on and started a cardigan to go with the peach sleeveless sweater. I haven't even started the other ribbon top for Vegas. I am still deciding what I want to do with it and how. It is a beautiful ribbon and will make a gorgeous top once I decide what I want to do.

I got a short walk in this morning and will do some weights this morning for a few minutes I guess. My diet plan is coming along ok having a disaster of a weekend. I paid for it with horrible heartburn on Saturday night that kept me awake most of the night.

If you like movies, ignore the critics and go see "Wild Hogs." It is hilarious and I loved it. You even get to see William H Macy's butt! lol I don't know why the critics hated it other than the fact it is pure entertainment, not moronic like some comedies that get accolades like stupid Jack Black films and you don't learn some higher social value unless it is that friends stick together. I would go see it again.

Don't forget to turn your forward on Saturday night. I can't believe the government did this, but when did any of them have any brains to begin with. I hear it could cause some real technical problems with computers and such and some payroll systems.

Everyone have a wonderful Tuesday. It is going to be today for us almost 70!

Donna

The Tiger Cub....

Here is my little Tiger Scout getting his badge pinned on by his dad and then one of he and his parents. He is growing up so fast. He is going to be in second grade already next year. We are hoping to take his family and my son's family to Disneyworld in 2009. They have a military hotel there that is top notch and the prices are great. You get reduced prices on the tickets to everything too! I think it will be a great vacation for everyone.

If you get a chance, go see "Wild Hogs." It is hilarious. Jack and I laughed ourselves silly. William H Macy should get the Oscar just for all the stunts, poor thing and showing his butt in public!

I am almost done with one side of my ribbon top, then will finish the other and sew up the shoulders and see how it does. It was an experiment so we shall see. I hope it comes out because the ribbon yarn wasn't cheap.

I have the downstairs to clean today. I did absolutely nothing but laundry the whole weekend so I have to get on the ball. I need to get my New Balance on and get out and walk too.

With that being said, hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Donna

And the sweater is done!

Here is my peach sweater. I cut off me cause who wants to look at me. The sweater is nice and comfortable, though shorter than I usually like it. I am going to wear it tomorrow to Thomas's Cub Scout Banquet. I can wear it with something under it also like a turtleneck or something as long as it isn't too thick so it could be worn in the fall too.

I was only down .4 this week at WW. I have to say I am a little discouraged to have a 2.6 gain one week and only a .4 loss the next when I stick to the program and exercise everyday. I did measure myself and have lost inches though and I noticed the ole tummy doesn't rub the steering wheel and there is actual light between it and the tummy so I am losing. I just hope next week shows a better loss.

My sister and her husband are coming to Arkansas in April and I am meeting her in Little Rock for her birthday and we are going to have an all girl's day and spend the night then she will go back to her in-laws and I will go home. I am looking forward to it. I haven't seen her since August of 2005 as she lives in California.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and hope you have good weather where you are at!

Donna