any minute now.

trick or treaters will be here-it's different now that the boys are older-no costumes or cupcakes with orange icing, but our neighborhood has lots of little kids so i's always fun to see the costumes and watch them hold open their bags and yell- "trick or treat!"- our candy bowl is ready-what's your favorite? i've put aside a couple heath bars (which i love!)
and sam the guard dog is keeping an eye on things.

finally.

a very busy day at the office-photo shows only part of my now covered desk:
faxing to miami for hotel billing
faxing to all congressmen and senators for GA, NC & SC
mailings to the above
blogging :-)
pulling training stats for the boss from about 12 different spreadsheets (love doing this)
greeting folks who pass by my desk (avoiding eye contact with those who like to "waste" time with pointless chit chat): seriously it's like grand central station-but not as pretty!
answering emails-internal and through another email system we use
and delivery of these little guys-i love how they came out, just wish i could get the right needle/yarn combo so i don't injure myself making them.
it's friday, i'm very busy, which means the day will fly till i get together with THE GIRLS.! happy friday.

for the engineer in all of us

so, it's the continued saga of the tree removal across the street. i looked out the window on friday, and low and behold-there's a dude in the tree-no cherry picker insight, so i'm guessing he drew the short straw and got the job of climbing up to cut down the limbs. as i monitored his progress i realized that perhaps georgia tech should have sent some engineering students to observe the happenings. many thoughts crossed my mind as i watch the acrobatics required for removing the limbs.
1. what in the heck would your mother say about you being in that tree with only a drop line and spike boots keeping you in place-then-i saw this

2. dude you did not just step from that tree onto that roof top- seriously?
3. i almost can't bear to watch-but it's like that whole rear window (alfred hitchcock) thing

4. he steps back again-egad-thing is these are not a really big/substantial limbs -so i'm wondering just how in the heck is he gonna manage as these limbs get even smaller and the places he has to stand on get fewer.
5. so now there are 2 drop lines, and a pulley set up to lower the branches-it's almost too frightening to watch-i was ready to call 9-1-1 should he take a tumble-hey, the least i could do after gawking for 2 days at this phenomenon.

6. i think every engineering major would benefit from a field trip with a tree removal service. they'd probably get some additional life skills they don't teach you in school-okay scratch that idea-there's ladies about.
7. now i'm a little less worried for the dear lad-he's a bit closer to the ground now, so any fall would probably only result in some bumps and bruises-nothing Mercurochrome and a band aid won't fix.

8. whew-glad the job is done-you'd never know there was a tree there.

tree removal in 9 easy steps

1. ride the cherry picker up and over a roof top

2. assess approach to removing top limbs
3. hand off the limb you just sawed off via a drop line-don't hit your buddies down below
4. put severed limb into wood chipper parked on the very public sidewalk-repeat steps 2,3 & 4 until . . . now this is key considering what happens next.

5. have an indepth discussion with a police officer about what you might be doing wrong. either no permit to remove tree-or blocking a public sidewalk and road way without permission might be a no-no.

6. use this time productively by having a very extensive and well deserved smoke break, while you wait for a verdict, or perhaps consider the meaning of life.
7. repeat step 6 while another officer comes to take evidence photos.

8. return to the cherry picker; which will take you back over the roof tops so that you can begin to vacate the premises.
9. after receiving your orders to cease and desist, clean up, and vacate . . .
yes, it was a slow day at the office, but quite entertaining.

on being a girl

this week has reinforced for me that it really is fun being a girl. it was great having the monday off while everyone was at work/school. i got lots done. then knit night and the "after party" so much laughter-very good for the soul. i'm expecting more fun and laughs with jillian tomorrow for dinner, my quilt club on friday, then SAFF with Mom on saturday. yesterday i was able to mark more things off my "to do" list-woohoo!. such as dusting and cleaning stuff in the cabinets in the dining room-ugh, not my favorite thing, but it had to be done, and it felt really good putting all the sparkling things back in place- i finished citron, cast on my kai-mei socks, did one 1/2 sleeves for coraline, and completed a quilt top, and finished a book-i love my hobbies :-). i spent a lot of time in the kitchen too-turkey stock for thanksgiving-the picture doesn't do the smell justice!
a very girly dinner-steve and andrew were out bowling so mom and i had a frittata with prosciutto, asparagus, spinach, portabellas, and sundried tomatoes and a cucumber tomato salad-yum. i also made ina's pumpkin roulade with ginger cream for sunday's dinner-here's the cooked pumpkin i got in this week's market basket that i used-this was totally crazy to cook, but provided the perfect amount for the roulade with only just a little left over-maybe pumpkin muffins?
i snapped this photo earlier this week-don't you agree- a wonderful use for your car's ashtray-stitch markers at the ready.
of course, there was laundry, clearing out the 162 emails i'd gotten since monday, and other domestic "stuff". i also watched juno-i'd seen it before with jillian, and i cried again towards the end-not sure if it was the heart-wrenching fact that she was 16, pregnant and putting her baby up for adoption, or the angst of vanessa on wanting a baby of her own and not being able to have one~it reminded me while it's not easy being a girl, surrounding yourself with incredible women sure can make it a wonderful thing.

filing for an extension.

of course, i didn't mark off everything on my "to do" list this week, but since i have another 4 day weekend coming up in mid november, i'm giving myself an extension-i got the loose photos from 2009 into albums, just need to do a bit of journaling and labeling-but that's portable, so all good. have room in my travel album, so i plan to print out photos from nyc and chicago. other photos will be digital photobooks.
tidied up my yarn/knitting-quilting library-didn't cull through patterns i'll never knit/sew, but everything is here and organized-projects bagged with patterns, etc.
my fabric is in better shape, bagged patterns and fabric together for planned projects-at some point i will sew the apron that mary bought me the fabric for soon! also put coordinating fabrics bought to use together for a yet to be decided project are also together. i was able to put the ziploc bags i've been hanging onto to very good use.
i did the messy part of the yard work, and put together a queen size quilt top sans the border pieces (i hope to do those on friday), but the desk is tidy and things are rolling along so hopefully when the holidays get here i won't get TOO overwhelmed.

the eagles have landed.

piedmont park has spent several days getting ready for the eagles concert today. an early morning photo of the semi's that lined charles allen blvd and 10th street, at 0'dark 30. i'm amazed at the amount of equipment, trucks, rv's, trailers, port-o-johns,pallets of beverages, golf carts, trash cans that are being utilized for this one day event. okay, granted this post is pretty random, but seeing all this at 6:00 am~~ i find strangely intriguing.

dutch treat.

fresh coffee and a siroopwafels (butter syrup wafer)-mmmmmmmmmmm.

happiness is (again).

a whole row on a plane ride from atlanta to houston and back-pretty awesome i'd say.

call me crazy.

i felt a nudge as i was finishing my second rosebud (embossed leaves) sock to give the socks to a flight attendant on saturday when i was coming home from houston. she is a knitter, and she stopped to admire my sock, and told me she had developed second sock syndrome, and had knitters to hang out with a few years ago, even had a stash of yarn-but couldn't get her knitting going again. the entire flight i tried to rationale why i shouldn't/couldn't give my socks away-much since i loved them, and wanted to wear them. what are the odds that i'd finish a pair mid flight and have the chance to make someone smile who had the same size foot. after hearing lysa terkeurst, i didn't want to ignore the voice i was hearing -even if it was my subconscious.

p.s. she is going to have to weave in the ends!

happiness is

an open sunroof on a sunny fall afternoon.