Advent Calendar

When we went to Austin, I brought a home made advent calendar for Thanksgiving holiday, but it was too early to start the calendar, so we played the memory game.

Each of the circle ornaments had a motif on the back. We played "where is the pig?" five times before the taller grandchild memorized the circle colors and we had to play, "where is the cat?"

Simple games are fun and these pieces tucked in custom side pockets - fun to put them away and pull them out regardless of the use.

Thank you Mrs. Campos for all your kind work!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving in Austin with brined turkey and every imaginable side dish was shared by Marilyn, Scott and Bridget Olson, Jim, Heather, Jack and Caroline Howard and Neil, Jane and Martta Howard with the perfect hostess Martta cooking yet another five star Thanksgiving feast.

This year we had to make a pennant describing what we were thankful for. Jack did two, one a Happy Thanksgiving.

Ahhhh. Now back to our normal work-a-day lives.

Golden Oldies

The Carrolls have rejoined Prince of Peace and we are their mentors to make them feel connected and welcome. So we got some of the originals together recently for dinner.

Left to right: Nancy and Larry Speicher, me, Mike and Diane Shell and Ellen and Mike Carroll.

Four hours of talking later, we had to call it a night because we all were working the next day!

New Cafe

We got a new literally next door little cafe. So now when I come to work early, I can smell the bacon cooking the minute I reach the top of the escalator stairs from Metro.

I figure that will end when the weather turns colder and they close their front door.

Can't match the Starbucks bold coffee across the street, but they have bagels with lox, so there are other attractions. And they cater sandwich lunches. We haven't tried that yet.

One more day and one more night until we get to try new restaurants to the South of here.

Photo Failure

I was out in Georgetown today because I was having lunch with 20 people and the new Ambassador from Jordan. She is very accomplished and has a PhD in Environmental Work. Very gracious.

I hadn't been to the Georgetown Club, a very old meeting house on Wisconsin NW. Remarkably historic. And the food was delicious.

Anyway, on the way there, I took a picture of a store sign, Second Hand Rose. But got home and the picture wasn't there after all, so I selected this wonderful ceiling from the arched path at the Summer Palace from among our 2500 photos from our trip to China.

I am on page 83 of my travel journal and only up to the third city, so you will have to wait to get the explanation of this ceiling.

Raking Leaves

Remember, I had drained the lawn mower for the winter. Now I know why I don't usually do it that early: the leaves. It is easy for me to mow the whole lawn in an hour, and dump the collected leaves on the flower beds for compost.

But that option wasn't available, and company was coming for dinner. If given a choice between inside and outside cleaning for company, you will always find me outside first.

It was a lovely 65 degree and sunny day so I raked the leaves just in front. You can see they are half way down the slope to the street and it does look like I mowed where they have been raked. I only got the front done and it took an hour. I am sure I will be stiff tomorrow, even though I alternated sides when I didn't think I could rake ten inches more.

Cut The Finished Fabric?

Today I faced a self-imposed barrier, gritted my teeth, read the instructions three times, consulted with my engineering husband, who answered, "probably", and went ahead and slit finished fabric and installed a magnetic closing.

Well, that wasn't hard at all, if you have the right tools and you put it on the right piece of the fabric. I did have qualms about cutting into the finished fabric because that unit was final and if I botched the magnet, I was going to have to cut and paste in recovery mode.

Went just fine, like Neil said.

Americas

If you want to rocket back to Barcelona and see some Gaudi inspired architecture, then stop at the Americas restaurant on Post Oak Blvd in Houston.

This exotic tree with the pink tile lining and lights from within, was above our heads as we sat at the table far ahead under its branches. There is not a straight line in the place, except the fences which prevent you from falling when the floor changes heights.

The food is Honduran and absolutely scrumptious. We all had their specialty, the steak, served with rice, plantains, summer squash, carrots and yucca.

I recommend it for the striking decor and the delicious food. The picture of the metal sculture above was the handle for the door to the ladies room. Thick at the top and fancy at the bottom, where you grabbed in the middle was thinner and your fingers fit under to pull open the door. Bad lighting for an iPhone picture, but you get the idea.

Houston

I was in Houston for business meetings Tuesday/Wednesday this week. I stayed at the Embassy Suites virtually across the street from the office. I was surprised to find in residence two Royal Swans, known as Pa and Gram, which are named after the owner's parents.

The sign explained the designers envisioned a place that would provide a beautiful, relaxing, and safe setting for guests. The swans are well cared for and recognize many of the hotel staff on sight. They certainly catch one's attention at the oasis and waterfall.

This type of swan is one of seven species worldwide and the largest British bird, once the pet of the royal family. They are vegetarians and their favorite food is spinach. They are quite capable of letting everyone know when it is time to eat.

Christmas Bags

For the December Quilt meeting, we put four fat quarters along the lines of a theme and label them in a sack. Then we take a number and play a game of switch and trade.

I am ready for the meeting and still not packed for the trip to Houston tomorrow, but that is what morning is for.

Last year I brought home cream and sugar, which turned out to be four different creme colored fabrics. I won't tell you what is inside my sack, but the description is self-explanatory.

Premie Quilts

The homework assignment for the little quilt group this month, was to bring an 11" square of holiday flannels - warmer reds, greens, blues, browns. The squares will be going to one person when we draw for a winner. You can choose to be in the drawing or not. I'm not going in for this one.

I actually had to go out and buy a half a yard of flannel, because after making a series of the snuggley flannel quilts, which are quilted before assembly and put together so all seams are open and then cut each 1/4", I got rid of all the scraps deciding, I'd had enough of that.

Your hands get very tired cutting the fringes!

With the left over quilting home work fabric, I put together two 14" squares with some red scrap fabric (Great Nana's home-made and practice machine quilting placemats from me), and will take these to the meeting as well. We will donate a bundle of these to the local NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).

Nothing Better Than Fall

We had deep blue skies today because of the abiding High that is over the East Coast. Such a beautiful day after a week of early morning frosts.

As a result all the reds are fully out now. These were across the street on Sioux Lane going into the town houses as I was headed to the grocery store.

Gorgeous. Just puttered all day. Oh, and I got the fabric for the traditional home made Christmas gifts. My children are so tolerant of my habits!

Old Photos

Now that I am spending time trying to write the journal about our trip to China, I am discovering how many places on this computer have stashes of old pictures.

This is one of Jack at two months old. The bib says, "Thank heaven for Little Boys."

We had a great time learning how to be Grandparents with you, Jack. We lived so far away, we were sure you would never remember us.

Thanks to your thoughtful parents and their posting our big faces at the bottom of your play pen, you didn't even cry when we came out at Christmas after only seeing you a couple of days in August.

You are definitely a keeper, as fishermen say.

Grandchildren Delights

Wish I had been in Austin to enjoy trick or treating with these favorite Texans. Jack and Caroline testing the costumes.

Getting my haircut tonight. Not much time.

The St Regis

This was taken looking straight up at the St Regis Hotel ceiling. What a nice way to start the day, 8am breakfast to discuss tax issues.

From there it was a trade meeting, then out to Northern Virginia for a board meeting.

The sun was shining, it got up to 70, the leaves are at full color, the construction project for phase one Silver Line traffic rerouting on Highway 7 was smooth to travel through near Tysons, everything is coming along.

The Birthday M.O.

The person in our house with a birthday tomorrow, tested the brownie pie Miss Lesa brought over still warm from the oven today.

Even Judi's present arrived in time.

We will celebrate by going to Red Lobster for dinner tomorrow night to get those Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

And we will celebrate throughout the week, because some gifts have not shipped yet! Maybe we should wait and open everything at once.....not.

Quilting Homework

This month's assignment for the big quilting group was to make six four-patch squares in cream and brown, then put them together up and down with 3"x5" plain pieces of fabric in warm reds, browns and greens.

It only took twenty minutes to do both squares because of chain stitching.

I'll be in Houston and will miss the drawing, but at least I got the work done on time.

Mower

It took twenty pulls to get my one-pull-to-start mower going, so Neil mentioned he needs to rebuild the carburetor. I thought about that as I was mowing, finishing up in the backyard.

There were so many thistles by the stand-alone, yellow lily that when I finished, I emptied the last grass/leaf bag and pulled weeds in the arborvitae bed.

That done and before I headed to the garage, I checked the gas tank. I could see some of the plastic bottom, so I decided to mow a little extra under the birches, picking up even more leaves, to let the machine "run dry". It didn't stop before I got tired of doing that.

Then I remembered, we tied off the handles last year to let it use up the gas. So carefully, I kept it running and took off one glove to keep the handle in the open position. I could see that wasn't going to hold. But I didn't want to turn the mower off and go get twine, so I took off my sun hat and looped the drawstrings around to secure the handle. The wooden buttons that move up and down to tighten or loosen the hat under the chin, could be the brake if in a noose position.

Still running. So I stood waiting. Got tired of that and remowed the left side of the driveway thinking it would use more gas if in gear. Got tired of that and drove it into the brick wall so I could go up and ask Neil, if there is very little gas in the tank, how long can it run? It doesn't take much gas to run. No prediction.

I finally stopped watching and went inside. I could hear the mower. It took half an hour, maybe more. Go figure. But at least the tank is empty for winter and if Neil wants to rebuild the carburetor he can.

Too Late

I didn't mow the lawn last weekend because we had company and also it hadn't grown that much. I did notice how many perfect leaves were on the backyard basil - about two feet wide and three feet high full of aromatic leaves.

I was thinking as I mowed, I should pick those leaves and put them in the slow oven to dry. Wouldn't fresh, homemade basil smell good!

Then we had company and a couple of nights of frost.

When I mowed the lawn today, I saw that my organic food alarm did not go off and warn me the plant was suffering, and now it is dead.

So a gardening lesson: Vinca and Snapdraggons tolerate frost. Basil doesn't.

Coal-Fired Pizza

We tried the new pizza joint for Friday night date night, but we went later than usual. This is a framed picture I sat looking at and there were others, of Reno, Hollywood, etc. All black and white and of a different era.

The first thing you notice is how good it smells when you enter and how full the seats are. We didn't have to wait because there was just one two-seater left.

We split a Greek salad and had a Margarita Pizza. Very thin crust and very, very crisp. We set upon the large pizza the minute it hit the table and only looked up when it was all gone! That was when I remembered I had brought the camera to take a picture of dinner. Maybe next time.

Frederick

Today it was rainy all day, not thunderstorm raining, just steady Seattle and Portland rain. So I didn't take any phone pictures because they turn out dark. This light post picture surprised me the other day because you can tell it has been there a while. It says "Abraham Lincoln, Our Friend and Liberator" Frederick Douglass, April 14, 1876 .

This plaque is eye level and just at the top of the block from the entrance to the Ford's Theatre. We have been in our new office location for two years now and I just noticed the picture as I went to a meeting on Tuesday this week. I must have passed it 20 times over the past 2 years, but I guess the light turned red and I had to pause and look around.

Since I was in the Frederick Office this afternoon and then stayed to hear an Ambassador speak at the Frederick Community College, I figured I'd share the Frederick connection. It is even spelled the same way.

It Can't Be Helped

Tonight's blog is a two picture blog. I tried to get the label and the shoe in one picture, but it was on the shops side of the Union Station Metro escalator and the bright red did not show up. So I took two pictures.

Imagine my surprise going to an esoteric international law meeting and walking up the escalator to find a huge, red, open-toed, fashionable high heel shoe!

So many people were taking pictures. It must have just been set up. It is fully three people high as you can tell from the person reading the price tag in the shoe picture, and also that bump in the middle top arch, that is a man taking a picture of his wife in front of the shoe from the other side. I can't even see the wife she is so short, rather the shoe is so tall!

More Frost

More nights when the temperature gets down to freezing is about the only thing that is going to curb our abundant crop of brown marmorated stink bugs.

When one first got into the house, I was horrified. But apparently they don't bite but do have a bad smell if you squish them. I immediately got the RAID and sprayed bug killer directly on it. This prehistoric looking leftover lasted fifteen minutes before it finally croaked from a direct hit with insecticide that kills a hornet in seconds.

They are fairly slow moving, but they do fly. Lately, I just grab them with kleenex, taking care not to squish and release the stinky feet smell, and flush them down the toilet. Oh, and it is election night.

Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Look at this late afternoon shot of the Old Executive Office Building near the White House. The scaffolding is off and the paint is pristine white and shiney in the sun.

The gold statute was gleaming between the monument and the EEOB and the Monument was clearly seen.

In person this looked much closer. I could even see the carving above the room top window.

I turned right at this corner to go to a meeting at the United States Trade Representative Annex briefing room.

We do live in a beautiful capitol.