« December 2007 | Main | February 2008 »
I've started off 2008 in good form. I've already finished 6 books, and my to be read pile is dwindling. That's the upside of sitting at airports and down time in a hotel room. I now have a huge pile ready to go to the used bookstore to trade for new reads - I just need to find time to get there. Nothing like a good read to remove you from reality even if only for a few minutes. Next week I'm traveling more, so I'll be able to read just a bit more.
It's official. I will be teaching a class at Winter Retreat.
I'll be teaching (yeah ... me -- what was I thinking - LOL) an acrylic note board 
using the Junkitz Salsa paper line. Linda will be posting it at Hilltop shortly I'm sure. I know that I am counting the days until Winter Retreat. I have a couple more trips to complete before then, and I'm not even sure I'm going to bring much to work on. I just want to rest and relax, and hang out with all the girls. I think that Winter Retreat is one of my most favorite crops.
I've been buying up those little Studio G Hampton Art stamps that Michaels has, so I might bring some of those along to play around with. Similar to the Studio G stamps are the Inque Boutique Lil D stamps, about the same size and price. I need to find a store that sells them, so I can start that collection.
Had to get up early today so that I could go vote before I head in to work. Since I work up in Broward, I have to vote before I make the trek north. From the amount of phone calls I've been receiving at home with recorded messages from the candidates, I think this will be an interesting election. People have different opinions about voting, so vote in every election, and some only in primary and presidential elections, and some vote only in a presidential election. So I'm wondering, (If you live in Florida) did you vote?
I had posted the links a couple of days ago which after you selected your stance on certain issues, it showed which candidate was closest to your feelings on the issues. It was kind of interesting because both of the links came up with the candidate that I was going to choose anyway. So, if you visited the links, how close did it come to who you had planned to vote for? Was it close, or were you surprised.
Now on to a voting day pet peeve of mine ... pollsters stopping you as you are heading to the polls to tell you about their candidate. (Yes, they are a legal distance away from the poll) My feeling is ... I've done my reasearch and made up my mind on who or what I'm voting for. I can't imagine that someone standing out in front of the polling place with a sign, or wanting to tell me about their candidate would make me change my mind as I'm heading in to cast my vote.
Gotta go now and vote, so I'll check in a little later
At the car show yesterday, my husband's car tied for 1st place in the Pontiac division. We had brought the '66GTO. The day was a little sloppy, rained a couple of times for a short while, and the sun just wouldn't stay out. Thankfully Miracle Mile in the Gables has lots of canapy's to stay under. We had a great spot, right on the end and right in front of California Pizza Kitchen which is where we did lunch. Even with the rain we had a fun day.
Many of my Tampa area friends may remember the times when I would come to town and stay with Jackie, and we'd meet for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants - Carrabas. I think its been at least 5 years since we've done that - this goes back to the Sebring Fling days. {small pause while I'm envisioning the memories and fun times we had} I sure do miss those days.
In any case, South Florida is finally on the Carrabas map. They just opened a restaurant (January 14th) in the South Miami area which is probably 5 minutes from my home. I am doing the happy dance. Now I don't have to wait for a special occaision to have my Chicken Bryan. Linda, you need to plan a crop down here and we can all go to Carrabas for dinner one night.
I delight in the small things that make my day.
I'm up early today because we have a car show in Coral Gables. It's a great show with the cars parked along Miracle Mile. I'll try to post some pictures from the show later today or tomorrow.
As we get closer to the primaries here in Florida this is something you might want to check out. You enter whether you support or oppose different topics and assign a level of importance, then by the wonder of mathmatics the program tells you which candidate is closest to you stance on the issues. It's a cool thing to try out just to see how close your pick is.
Try both of these two sites to determine which candidate agrees most with your stance on the issues:
http://www.dehp.net/candidate/index.php
http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html
My sister forwarded me the links and I thought it was pretty cool. Check it out.
Time for a public service announcement --- hey ... don't tune me out yet - you know some of these people.
Two upcoming events ...
First my sister is "Bowling for Kids Sakes" for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Pinellas County. If you can help her reach her goal by sponsoring her it would be appreciated. It's for a great cause, and every little bit helps.
And then my friend Jackie is participating in the MS Walk - you can click here to sponsor her. Jackie held the Crop4Hope back in September. She herself has MS, and will be walking with her team "Team Durning" her goal is to raise $5000.00. If you know Jackie, you probably know some of the people walking on her team like Helen, Amanda, Aunt Sue, or her husband John so drop by and cheer them on by making a pledge.
So I placed an order at Marthas Choice for some scrapbooking supplies on the 21st and today I received them. Today ... that's like 3 days time and they are all the way in Washington state. You couldn't get any farther away from me here. Needless to say I was very excited when I walked into my office this afternoon and saw the box sitting on my desk. Nothing makes a bad day at work better then finding scrapbooking goodies on you desk - it was just the pick up that I needed.
Now, I just need to get home and get to play some.
I've got a couple of weeks home here before I head to Phoenix for a training class, and then make a stop in Texas for a few days before I come back home. I think this next trip, I'm going to take a few things with me to play around with. I'll be checking luggage anyway, so I think I'll throw in some stamps and paper to play with.
they are giving away Stacy Julians new book on organizing and scrapping your photos. You have to leave a comment and they'll pick a winner from there. I'm kind of interested in the book because I really need a system for storing and organizing my digital pics - sad to say even though I've uploaded most to picasa, I still have them on the memory card so I need a better way. Anyway ... here's the link.
and so it goes ...
Not really having too much fun here - too much traveling for work, and just plain tired when I get home from even a regular day at work. Last I posted was close to two weeks ago, and I was doing so well with the daily updates too.
Oh well ... going to go for it again. Even though I'm traveling quite a bit lately, I do seem to post more because I'm bored when I get back to the hotel. Let's see how long a run I can have this time.
