Tropical Storm Cindy

Interesting summer around the Florida Panhandle. Yet another early season tropical storm and another right behind her. Usually we don't get any tropical activity around here before late July or early August. On a positive note, chances are I'll have tomorrow off work. We're supposed to see a lot of rain but not much else. The winds are up to 70 miles an hour at the moment.

This weekend we managed to get a troublesome tree taken down for free. That is a very good thing. It was dead, all tangled up in our power lines and our neighbor's power lines, since it was only the lines to the homes and not the main poles the power company said it was not their problem. We tried getting it taken care of before Hurricane Ivan hit last year but thankfully it survived the winds and we came home to find all our power lines intact. A friend was able to cut the limbs away from the power lines and then a neighbor wanted the wood from the stump. I would have taken a pic but we left early Monday morning for breakfast and by the time we got home the stump was gone. DH was disappointed they cut it down so fast as he had decided that he was going to carve the stump into a totem pole. I should state that this "stump" was about 8 ft. tall. But Steve got that stump chopped down and cut up in a little over an hour because we hadn't been gone that long.

Fourth of July

We had a very quiet 4th. Didn't do anything but lay around and watch Season 3 of Northern Exposure on DVD. It's my favorite season so far, Chris's pheromones, flinging the cow, the story of Cicely and Roslyn. Great, great afternoon. Although I have become one of those people I never thought I would be. I watched hours of tv and didn't work on one project. I laid on the couch and just watched tv. We grilled out Hawaiian chicken for supper(used Lawry's Hawaiian marinade) and also grilled some roasting ears. YUM!

Tuesday

Today DS#3 and I took a drive down the beach road. It has been closed since Hurricane Ivan and reopened on Friday. It's beautiful. Most of the roadside parks are closed, or rather they don't exist any more, Opal Beach Park was destroyed, but the view was breathtaking as always. This drive always makes me cry because it's so beautiful. There is absolutely nothing more beautiful than the Gulf of Mexico along the Florida Panhandle. Unfortunately lots of people have discovered our area, I'm suffocating here. This weekend we seriously discussed moving. This is the only place I've ever wanted to live, it took me 30 something years to finally get here, we're three miles from the Gulf and I find a lot of peace there, but when there's no parking and you can't get to the beach you might as well vacation here. I've been avoiding going to the beach the last few months just because it's such a pain in the ass to find parking, a spot on the beach, because in our area it's the only beach open at the moment. Ivan pretty much devastated our area and Heaven forbid that the county do anything to make life pleasant for the locals. If there is no where for tourists to stay on the beach why bother making it accessible for the locals, you know the people who live here? Well enough of that whine.

Music

I'm still listening nonstop to the new Dwight Yoakam CD Blame the Vain. The song "When I First Came Here" is great. I listen to it and "She'll Remember" over and over. The family is ready to kill me. They are sick of Dwight.

Speaking of music, DS#1 downloaded a nasty virus and I had to run system restore on the desktop. I'm pretty sure if I plug my iPod in I will lose all the music on there until I get everything reloaded back in iTunes. If I'm wrong about this could someone please let me know? I'm assuming since the music files are gone, that I have to reimport everything into iTunes before I can plug my iPod back into the computer. I have over 1,000 songs on the iPod and spent hours uploading it all into the computer. I am so not happy about this.

Crafty Pursuits

I got nothing. Absolutely nothing. Haven't picked up a needle or hook of any kind in what seems like forever. I did go to the LNS on Saturday and picked up Homespun Samplars' Celtic Band Sampler and Prairie Moon's Ghoul Train and some 28ct Creme Brulee fabric to stitch it on. Also scooped up Water's Edge It's 5:00 Somewhere. I'm not stitching but I am stashing!

I have determined that once again I am overwhelmed with the state of my stitching and must take control of the situation. It is a chaotic mess at the moment. When things get out of control I just don't want to stitch at all. It's easier to just lay on the couch and watch tv. I need to get my focus back and finish up Fairy Grandmother. It's time to suck it up and get the hag finished so I can move on to other more selfish endeavors. I think I will feel so much better about all my stitching projects once I get her done. Making the decision is the easy part, actually picking her up and working on her is another story.

Also need to get the stash organized. I did this a few years ago and once again I have stuff every where and can't remember what charts I have and what I have started. I think I'm going to try to set up some kind of spread sheet or something so I have a clue what's going on in the old workbasket.