The Demon Bean

How to tell your coffee habit is out of control?

Your son is making coffee shops out of Legos with little Lego baristas and a drive up window.

I will no longer be bringing the little vice barometer on my morning mocha run.

After I get my mocha, I'm going to head out to the patio–spent yesterday finding the edges of it after I ignored the creeping grass slowly covering the bricks all last summer– with my latest project and curse the wasps that are trying to build nests in the patio umbrella.

Baseball and little boys

Back in May, I bought tickets to see the Spokane Indians (minor league team) this weekend, forgetting that summer in the inland northwest starts mid-July.

Like most little boys, Boybat is impervious to the elements and wasn't phased by the rain or the cold. I, on the other hand, was in competition with my dad as to who could string together whole sentences (quietly) using nothing but curse words to describe how stupid it was for us to be sitting there in the rain.

Fortunately, Grandma Ginny was there to explain what was going on on the field, taught him how to read the scoreboard, remembered to bring a blanket and bought him a stuffed team mascot that he hasn't let go of yet.

He loved the whole experience–the game, the crowd, the food.

After I defrosted and dried out, I realized I had fun there, too. We'll go again.

Not til mid-July, though.

DINKs and garage sales

It’s been so nice out that I haven’t been able to make myself sit down and write this past week.

What I have done tho' is get the "seasonal" yard work almost finished and as a bonus, get the garage cleaned out.

What the hell were you doing cleaning the garage you might ask? I couldn’t find the damned weed sprayer and when I did see the tiny hint of it, I couldn’t get to it. 

Grrr!

Only because it was necessary, I cleaned and organized the garage that has been wallowing in basement cast-offs for the past year. By the end of summer last year, there was a path from the garage door to the inside door. If you needed to go anywhere in that maze of crap, you would need to tie a rope around your waist to find your way back (I exaggerate, but not too much).

I blame the DINK (Double Income No Kids) era of mine and Joe’s relationship. We had disposable income then and I had a home décor bug up my tuckus. When the whirlwind of destruction-otherwise referred to as Boybat-was toddling, a lot of that stuff went into storage and never came out. It made it from upstairs closets, to the basement, to the garage and is now destined for a garage “why would someone want to buy this” sale.

Mind you, I’m not having a sale, I’m commissioning my neighbor to tack it on to her sale, while I cross stitch outside on my lovely patio enjoying the sun and telling Boybat to quit trying to hit the neighborhood cats with his suction cup bow and arrow set.

One year later and a person less

I lost a person and all I can say is, it’s about time! When I say I “lost a person”, I mean I’ve lost over 115 lbs. this past year (which would be a skinny little person, weight-wise). Hot freekin’ damn!  

When we drove to Wisconsin last year, we were able to drive through Yellowstone and see a few sights. When I compared last year’s photos to this year’s photos, I did a little dance that no one should ever have to see (sorry, Joe).

A year ago, I barely wanted to get out of the car to do the hikes and found myself sitting on a bench waiting for my guys to finish their walks.  Last week, Joe and Boybat had to keep up with me on the hikes!

No! I dont want to go back to real life!

Where to start? I know, VACATION!

We just got back from a week at Yellowstone National Park. It was fantastic, beautiful, amazing. I figured out this week that I’ve been there 7 times now and still haven’t been able to visit all the places that I want to see. In all the times that I’ve been there, I’ve never seen it with snow on the ground–until last week. It snowed everyday we were there with accumulations in some parts of the park being over two feet in one evening. It was stunning to drive into there with the snow in the trees and the blue sky.
 

My friend, Stacy, calls it my “Happy Place." She knows me pretty well (which means that I should move to another town where people haven't realized that I'm sarcastic for a reason). 

For as much as I really dislike being outside, nature in general, Raging waters, and walking around in blizzards, when I’m in Yellowstone, life is good. Joe has accepted that when we retire we’re going to volunteer at the park so we can stay there in the summers. I think he agreed because I’m a much more pleasant person when I’m there.

I did get some stitching done when there was down time in the hotel. Picked out some different colors for the Dandy Dreams pattern, with brighter colors.
 

Did I already mention that I finished Lo How a Rose? I’ll put pictures of it up soon.
 

Artists Point in the Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Am I the only one who saw a dragon in this rock?

Holy crap! Look at the snow bank on the road side

Norris Geyser Basin with Boybat

Coming into the park

Please forgive me if I go on about my vacation, I’ll try to keep it down to just a few posts.

Close, but not perfect

My morning conversation with Boybat on the way to school.

Boybat: Do you love me?

Me: I love you to the sun and back. 

Boybat: Mom you'll burn up before you even get to the sun.

Me: OK, I love you to the moon and back.

Boybat: There's no air on the moon.

Me: I love you from here to school and back?

Boybat: Close, but not perfect.

Me: Alright then, what would be perfect?

Boybat: From here to Africa and back.

No stitching today, I was out enjoying the sun and how the neighborhood comes alive when the weather turns good.

Sacrificial Patterns for Pélé (not the soccer guy, the volcano one)

Holy Hell! If I actually get Lo How a Rose done before it sends me into the nut house, I'll have a party and burn that pattern in some ceremonial volcano ritual.
It started out so promising, and has turned into the project from hell. It's making me feel very stabby. Maybe I should trade the embroidery scissors out for Boybat's safety scissors?
Last night as I was finishing up the vines in the corner, I noticed that the words "was" and "Night" weren't lining up right. More ripping and cursing and then the discovery that I'm out of the floss I need to redo the text (curse mumble mumble curse mumble curse).

Very little stitching otherwise. This past weekend was the second decent weekend that we've had with no rain or snow. Boybat, Joe, and I picked out flowers for the pots and planted sunflowers seeds. I rebuilt the little rock ledge since it was shifting (little boys climbing on it probably didn't help). Broke out the patio furniture and even put little solar lights in the flower beds. I'm feeling like quite the outdoor goddess this week. Oh, and painting. After painting the front door and the bathroom, along with the gardening, holding a tiny little needle was out of the question.

Are Wind-up Chickens that "Poop' Jellybeans Appropriate Gifts?

What I consider an appropriate gift vastly differs from what Joe considers appropriate. After the jellybean pooping wind-up chicken, I "help" Joe when it comes to gift giving holidays.

Two Sundays ago, I found book of cross stitch fonts that I was coveting on a website, filled out all the necessary information including billing and shipping info and stopped just short of clicking the "pay here" button. I woke up my extraordinarily patient spouse and informed him that I found what I wanted for Mother's day and he should get out of bed to click the pay button. Suddenly, I realize that he puts up with a lot of crap from me.

It isn't really a present if I bought it myself, right?

The past two years he and Boybat have gone camping with his family during Mother's Day weekend, leaving me at home. For which I am eternally grateful. I hate camping. Tents are like stay fresh bags for bears. Ursine ziplocks. When I leave my house for an extended period of time, there had better be outlets, hot water, and cable involved.

This left me with an entire weekend with only one chore, paint the front door, which took all of two hours–only because I had to let the paint dry between coats. The rest of the weekend I spent watching BBC America (Supernatural Saturday, Yipee!), and stitching.

I've un-banished Lo How a Rose. After much soul searching and pirate-like cursing, I found peace with the fact that I had to frog the bright pink stitches-have I explained frog to all you non-stitchy readers? No? It's a term stitcher's use to refer to removing stitches when you make a mistake. When you remove a stitch you have to rip it, rip it. 

I also finished up Green Snowman and just have to sew on the buttons. I ran out of the oatmeal scone thread that the snowman and the hill are stitched in. No idea if it didn't come with enough or maybe the cat ate it. I thought I was going to have to rip out all the stitching in the snow guy and the hill and start with a new color, but after talking with the ladies in the local stitch shop, they suggested calling Shepherd's Bush and getting another piece of thread. Brilliant! They're my new best friends for the week.

I'm fickle, it'll be someone else next week.

C'mon, it'll be fun! No, really!

Group activities? 

Nope, no way, uh uh. If there's more than three people, count me out. That's just too many people that could potentially find out that I'm a socially awkward geek.

So, imagine my surprise when I was actually anticipating going to a group stitch Friday night. 

 

It was a blast! Those four hours seemed to fly by. 

I might have to try new group activities. Group skydiving? Probably too much right now. Group hugs? Uhg, too much physical contact. Maybe group cleaning? That's it! Anyone who wants to do group cleaning can come to my house this afternoon and we'll all clean my closets together. I'll even get pizza!

I did put a pretty good dent into the Green Snowman pattern and I'm already trying to decide what to do next. 

C'mon, cleaning my closets will be fun if we do it all together!

Framing Day

I do love picking up my finished pieces from the frame shop. I was able to bring home 2 of the 3 that I had framed.

This one is a pattern I designed myself, still no idea what to call it. After hunting for a mat that wasn't overbearing,  I decided to go with just the frame.

This one is Shepherd's Bush "Shepherd's Hill". Framed it with a traditional frame and green mats in similar shades of green, but different textures.

I'm hoping to pick up the third one this weekend, it needed to have the mat adjusted. Then I get to add them to the wall o' cross stitch I've started. My goal is to fill up the wall by the end of this year and start a new wall. 

I should have gotten MUCH larger frames.