mermaids

We wanted to do something in the mountains, but, collectively, we have way too many orthopedic issues to even think about hiking.  Gem mining sounded like a good excuse to drive up into the mountains and enjoy the view from our car.  We typed the location into Tom the GPS and off we went.  After a thousand twists and hairpin turns, Tom took us to a very rocky dirt road.  At this point we were going on total faith in Tom because we had absolutely no idea where we were or where we were going.  Good ol’ Tom took us right to the front gate where we were greeted by these guys: 

   and this adorable little guy: 

The dogs were quite friendly.  The owner said, “You must have a GPS because there is no way you would have found us without one.”  Apparently all the road markers had been blown down with the recent strong winds. 

I had visions of a very cheesy, high commercial operation with the Gift Shop being the big focus.  Nope.  This was a gorgeous, tranquil farm.  She gives you a bucket and a shovel, then shows where to dig.  Once you have the bucket of dirt, she shows how to sift the dirt through screens in a trough.  The water is diverted from a beautiful little babbling brook.  The water was cold and it was breezy, but the sun felt warm on our faces.  Who knew sifting through dirt could be so relaxing.  We were not expecting to find much in the way of gems.  One or two each would have been exciting.  Well, we each found a little plastic baggie full of sparkly things.  It was mostly rose quartz, fluorite, smoky topaz, and amethyst.  We even found several rubies and sapphires. Of course, they are all unpolished, uncut, and not really gem quality.  Nonetheless, it was fun to find them. 

Checking out the farm animals was an added bonus.  I cannot remember the name of the geese, but she said it is the only breed that does not chase after people.  A very fine quality in a goose, indeed.  I loved the ruffled feathers…so festive….    

Cows have always been a favorite of mine.  They have those big, sweet eyes.  They are good to eat.  They make great coats, bags, and shoes.  This pretty girl let me pet her and even mooed for me.  I did not tell her that the sight of her made me hungry for a burger. 

This horse came walking down the path as if he were jealous of the attention the cow was getting. 

Heading home after a long day at the mine….

If you click on any of the photos, it will take you my Flickr account where I have even more photos.  I am in love with our new camera.  Most of these photos are straight from the camera.  The only editing I did was a little bit of cropping.  I have zero photo skills so this is very exciting for me.  The animals and beautiful scenery just begged to photographed. 

Ding, ding, ding…..Gaylen got it right.  The photos are of the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.  It was just the kind of low key getaway that we all needed.  The Biltmore was truly amazing.  The indoor pool and bowling alley were dwarfed by the rest of the basement if that gives you any clue as to how incredibly huge this place was.  It is incomprehensible that this was built as a single family dwelling.  We were there on Easter Sunday, hence the large number of children and small plastic eggs on the front lawn.  Over the next few days, I will upload more photos to my Flickr account.  (If you click on one of these, it will take you to my Flickr photostream.)  Indoor photos were prohibited.  :(  The gardens were just starting to bloom, but it was still impressive.  I bet it will be stunning in a couple of weeks. 

It is rather ironic that Gaylen figured out the mystery location because I also received this lovely from her in today’s mail:

She sent it as her “Pay It Forward” gift.  Isn’t it gorgeous?!?!  More irony here…When Gaylen posted the shawl on her blog, I thought, “Wow, that would be perfect for summer when you wear a little sundress, but it gets chilly when the sun goes down.  Where would I ever find one that doesn’t cost a bazillion dollars?”  Won’t I look chic and stylish this summer?  I wish you could feel it….so soft and cozy.  The workmanship is amazing.  She has certainly set the bar pretty high for the gifts I still need to send out.  Again, more irony…just this weekend I finally decided what I would make for my gifts to send out.  No, I am not telling.  :)  A million “thank yous” to Gaylen! 

I bought Hubski the GPS because he has no innate navigational skills.  Before any trip, he kills off a forest of trees by printing the entire MapQuest site.  I thought the GPS would bring calm to our family vacations.  This weekend was the first time we really used together. I fell in love with Tom (the GPS) on my escape to DC.  On the first day, Hubski began questioning Tom.  Despite Tom’s insistence that we “go left,” Hubski thought we should go right.  He had absolutely no data on which to base the decision.  No maps, no prior knowledge of the city, no road signs, just his innate navigational skills.  You know what comes next….we were going the wrong way.  Ever patient Tom was giving us directions to get back on the correct path, but Hubski remained dubious.  Ugh.  Tom was smoking from rapidly recalculating our route every time Hubski made a turn that took us farther from our destination.  I began pleading with him to listen to Tom.  The boys joined the chorus of “Listen to Tom.”  At last, he listened to Tom and we found our way.  Why did I buy the man a GPS if he is just going to ignore it?

Towards the end of the trip, I changed Tom’s language preference to Spanish. That made the trip very amusing.  :) 

Here is another photo from our trip:

Lisa’s guess of NYC was good one, but not right.  :)  Another hint - The weather was quite pleasant all weekend, but the temperatures plummeted Sunday night.  There was a chance of snow on Monday.  We were very happy to leave before seeing any snow.  Oh, and I did not buy any fabric because there really were not any good fabric stores, except for a silk shop.  Since Hubski brings silk from Asia, I felt I could skip the silk shop.

Any other guesses? 

Hubski was in Asia for almost 3 weeks.  He was gone for 3 weekends, which is the part that matters to me the most.  During the week, the boys and I are busy with school and extra curricular stuff.  It’s not that we don’t miss him during the week, there is just less time to focus on missing him.  However, the weekends can be long when he is gone.  The weekends are hectic for me because, as the only person in the house with a driver’s license, I live in the car shuttling everyone where they need to be and doing all the errands.  Hubski does a lot with the boys on the weekends, so it is on the weekend that his absence is really apparent. 

During his trip, Hubski went to India, China, and Japan.  He really should start a blog of his adventures.  When he travels to these exotic locales, he has very little time for sightseeing or shopping.  He is usually there because there is a big problem to resolve or he is trying to visit as many business partners as possible.  His schedule is always overbooked, but there is always drama with international travel.  He did manage to sneak in a little fabric shopping for me.  No sari from India because he was not in the part of India where saris are worn.  :(  However, he scored some awesome silk in China.  I will post photos soon.  (Excuse for not posting photos now to follow) 

Since Hubski had been away and it is finally Spring Break at school, we decided to take a little trip at the last minute.  We had talked about it before he left, but we did not make reservations until Thursday….and we left Friday.  Can we say “last minute”?  We all needed a little family time.  There is lots to tell about our trip, but I am tired.  So, we shall play a little guessing game. 

From this photo, can you guess where we went?

By the way, our new camera totally rocks.  This photo is entirely un-photoshopped.  Yes, photoshop is now a verb.  :) 

Dear Hubski,

If Tom the GPS says, “Turn left,” you really should turn left.   Don’t try to out think it and definitely don’t try to wing it when it comes to navigation.  Really, it is not one of your strengths.

My friend’s husband is an intelligent human being.  He made it through medical school, so must be smart, right?  Today, I am questioning this.  Yesterday, he was returning from a business trip.  For some reason that makes no sense to me, he puts his car keys in his suitcase when he travels.  Yes, in the suitcase that he checks as baggage with the airlines.  Guess which suitcase the airlines lost?  No one was home, so he had to a taxi home.  Oh, and to add to the fun, he has that same icky viral thing that my family had.

Today, he was too sick to go back to the airport to retrieve his car, so I give my friend a ride to the airport.  The only information she has as to the location of the car is “on the 5th level, near the elevators.”  Row number?  Could we get a row number?  Nope.  We drive around and around and around, looking for the car.  Just as we were all getting nauseous from driving around in circles, we spot the car.

So, what lesson did we learn here?  Do not pack your car keys in your checked luggage.  I can laugh at it because it wasn’t *my* husband who did this.  I can’t wait to see my friend’s husband again.  He will get grief about this for a long, long time.

Isn’t it pretty? It followed me home from IKEA. This was just what I wanted for the corner of the living room. The right color, the right size, the right shape. The little throw pillow *will* be replaced. I am thinking about something with a print or design, not solid, something to bring out the blue walls and white trim in the room. The lamps I want for the room are mercury glass, so some silver would also work for the pillow. Since I have been looking for some handwork projects, an embroidery project is brewing in my head. The sofa also needs throw pillows, which will be predominately red to tie in with the chair. I have some gorgeous red silk that Hubski bought in China. It will need some sort of embellishment, possibly a geometric pattern of tucks and folds. I have a fuzzy vision of all this in my head.

IKEA is always fun. There are so many nifty things, so many great colors. Shari commented that she likes a lot of IKEA’s things, but the colors are a bit bright, not her colors. That is what I *love* about IKEA! I have a hard time finding things I like at regular furniture stores because everything is so muted and calm. IKEA is definitely more fun with a friend, especially who gets as excited about storage boxes as I do.

Monday morning, I infected Sue with spontaneity virus. I woke her up at the crack of dawn so we could meet at IHOP for breakfast. Her family was as confused as mine was by the rapid departure to meet “a sewing friend.” Sue was as enjoyable and personable as her blog and emails. We talked a great deal about the joys and “joys” of raising boys who march to their own drummers. It felt like I had known her forever. I promised to make another trip to DC, but with a little more advanced notice.

On the way back home, I stopped by GStreet Fabrics. I am desperately trying to reduce my stash. Part of me said I should be a good girl and skip GStreet altogether, not set myself up for temptation. But how could I drive all that way and *not* go to GStreet?!?! Finally, I decided to go, but only buy fabric if it was truly special. “On sale” did not count as “truly special.” There were a few things that were pretty, but nothing stood out as “truly special.” I left the store empty handed. Yes, you read that right…”empty handed.” I bought nothing because there is so much in my stash that is way prettier than what I saw at GStreet. It felt weird to not buy anything, but it felt even better to know that I didn’t buy just to buy.

The drive home was not bad. Tom kept me company and kept me on the right track. (I will write a big review of Tom later.) People on I95 do *not* know how to stay in their lane. Those white lines are on the road for a reason, people! The boys were very happy when I arrived home. It was kind of nice for me to be the one getting the big “welcome home” reception. It was all the sweeter when I discovered that the boys worked on their school projects while I was gone. Today, we were able to relax and enjoy our last day of the long weekend.

It was fun. It was fast. So much to tell, but not tonight. I am tired. Just wanted to let everyone know that I made it home, safe and sound. (Thank you, Tom) I was not running away from home, nor did I suddenly lose my mind. The mind was gone a long time ago.

At 8:30 this morning, I was IM’ing with Shari who is visiting DC.  She was torturing me with talk of a trip to IKEA.  Somehow the conversation went from “wouldn’t it be fun to shop at IKEA together” to “find me a hotel room and I’ll call from the road.”  I was DC bound by 10 a.m.

Not only did I ditch Hubski with the two boys (one of whom is somewhat sick), I swiped his birthday present.  Yes, I took the brand new GPS that was going to be his present later this week.  I went with the Tom Tom because it was on sale and we can download the Yoda voice.  As a testament to Tom Tom, I ripped the unit from the packaged, plugged it, and was on my way to DC in a matter of minutes.  The owner’s manual is still in the sealed package.  It is entirely intuitive.  The unit probably does all sorts of nifty things that I will discover when I read the directions.  However, it took me exactly where I wanted to go even though I didn’t really know where that was.

After a couple of phone calls while en route, Shari and I decided to rendezvous at IKEA.  I did not have the exact the address to put into the GPS.  No problem.  A few little taps on the screen and Tom led me right to IKEA.  In a freakish coincidence, Shari arrived at the exact same time.  Considering the distance we were both traveling, from opposite directions, it was an amazing coincidence.

There is much more to say about Tom, the new love of my life, the IKEA visit, and Shari, but it will have to wait.  Right now, I am in a hotel room….all alone.  No one is asking me to find anything.  There is no homework to check.  No laundry to fold.  No one to tell me to turn down the heat.  So please excuse me while I go enjoy the solitude for a bit.