Friday, October 31, 2008

Last Chance

You still have about 7 hours to enter Stash Collector's Breast Cancer Awareness Month blog candy contest!

But it's never too late to take care of the "girls"!



It may be too cold for me to wear this to the volleyball game tonight, though...Go Jackets!!!!!

Horrors!!

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Really, this test was hilarious to take...if for nothing else than the "advice" that pops up throughout the test for surviving....

Your result for How Long Would you Survive in a Horror Film?...

The Horror Aficionado

54% chance of survival!


Sometimes known as "the wise guy" or "the totally platonic best friend". This character is usually either the most likeable or most excruciatingly annoying character in the movie, because he's almost always the comic relief (or lack thereof). Sometimes he is the first to die because he figures out what's going on, tries to escape and is killed. However, the horror aficionado will more likely use his knowledge to devise the plan that eliminates the threat. That means he survives until the end where he ends up dying as a sacrifice so that the heroine can carry out the plan. Though he tends to lack a backbone, you do feel somewhat bad when he dies.


All possible results:


Jock/Cheerleader


The Black Guy


The Horror Aficionado


The Hero/Heroine


The Killer


Take How Long Would you Survive in a Horror Film? at HelloQuizzy


JiffNotes
Oh, fine. Kill the funny girl.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Quick Update

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I'm back from ASG! I had a fabulous time; I'll give you a full report later. Wednesday night I was so exhausted by 9:30pm that I couldn't finish packing (and I'm usually the "stay up 'til midnight to finish" type), and trundled off to bed & Nyquil (praise God for Nyquil!!) hoping I could finish in the morning. I barely made it with 20 minutes to spare before the Party Van (tm) arrived to whisk me to Hilton Head. Thursday night I was exhausted again, but the good news is that I got a good night's sleep, felt pretty good Friday and GREAT Saturday...and usually I'm tanked by Saturday at ASG. Hmmm, that sleep thing really works, huh?? This week I've been slammed with work as usual, and the start of Christmas choir season, but I hope to find time this weekend amongst dealing with the tasks I've neglected for the past three weekends to blog!!

I'll also continue my Chicago adventures. To answer some questions, indystitch, our tour docent was a female, so unless John can do some amazing drag, it wasn't him. =) Also, that was the Cultural Center with the fabulous blue dome ceiling. I highly recommend a visit; the mosaic tile work is incredible!!

Speaking of the mosaics, no one has even made a guess about the fictional character whose symbol I posted, so here's another huge hint: My XBox gamer tag came from the series where that charcter was created.

And one more thing...here's your chance to make a guess at which intelligence type I came out as in the Eight Types of Intelligence Test. Anyone? I was completely unsurprised by the result, LOL!!

JiffNotes
I'm alive, feeling better, and my vacation recaps will continue soon. And, it's still not too late for blog candy!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Off again..

Due to the fabulous Lott family scheduling of the Chicago trip, I'm already off again...this weekend to Hilton Head for my yearly ASG trip.

I've barely gotten the laundry done, since last Thursday I came down with a terrible cold (sinus infection?) that had me in bed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I hobbled back to work Monday, but I don't know how much use I was. Tuesday when we walked to lunch, I thought I'd pass out. Today I feel so much better. Still weak, but ready for a rowdy weekend of stitching. Or something like that.

Jean comes to pick me up in the Party Van (tm) in...oh...about 14 hours as I write this (about 2 hours as it's posted), and I have not packed a thing. I better get on that! Eye candy, scary needle stories and more Chicago tales when I return!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Chicago Sampler

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Heather and Michael in Chicago
Before the trip to Chicago, I'd heard that it was called "The Windy City" because of the politicians (on the trip I learned it was the politicians that convinced the Worlds' Fair committee to come there). However, I suspect some of the breeze two weekends ago was created by us as we blew through the city at top speed! We had a wonderful trip, and I just loved Chicago. It was so beautiful, and so CLEAN! However, we barely scratched the surface in our five days. I'd love to go back (and ride a sailboat when it's warmer!)

After a too-short night (I estimate 5 hours sleep), we took off with Michael's parents to the airport, flew to Chicago and immediately boarded the El. I'm astonished by how close it comes to the buildings--and at what an angle it leans on turns--as it hurtles through the city! We checked in to the hotel and then set off to start our pizza sampling at Giordano's, where we decided to wait the 35 minutes for a stuffed-crust pizza: stuffed crust pizza Whoah, that's a lot of cheese! I estimate I consumed the equivalent of 3 cups of shredded mozzarella. It was good, but I admit I was a little disappointed...the sauce was not to my taste (too tomatoey, not enough savory), and the crust was pretty "blah" as well. However, we were well-fortified for a walking tour of Chicago architecture. I learned about Chicago style windows (one large one in the middle, with two smaller, working windows to each side: Chicago style windows I'm so envious of Chicago's city planning. If only Atlanta had taken advantage of Sherman's horrific flame-throwing in the same manner that Chicago benefitted from Old Lady Leary's cow's mischief by deciding to completely replan the city since it was levelled anyway.

Tiffany gorgeousness was everywhere, like on the ceiling of the Marshall Fields building (now Macy's): Marshall Fields ceiling Tiffany wasn't the only one who had it going on, either: Community Center dome
This row of buildings faces Lake Michigan, but Chicago is lousy with gorgeous buildings, both of the original load-bearing masonry and the newfangled steel frame variety. Of course, the steel frame variety are usually clad with fireproof terra cotta to stave off future bovine intervention. Michigan Row
After walking ourselves silly, we headed to the Art Institute Museum for Target Free Thursdays! Admission to the Museum is free, courtesy of Target, Thursdays from 5-8. If you go to Chicago, DO NOT MISS THIS MUSEUM!!! It just may be my favorite museum ever. I could have showed you tons and tons of pictures we took during the two plus hours we ran through it in (we had to stop for a snack in the cafe...mainly salad, to counteract the large dosage of bread, meat and cheese from earlier...and by the way, the cafe food was great and reasonably priced). Their collections are deep and the artifacts on display were all excellent. In most museums I've been to, in any given section there are a bunch of ho-hum objects and two or three that you really want to spend time studying. In this one, almost every piece was worth considering. And, there was a wide array of pieces, from fine arts to decorative arts to ancient artifacts.

I tried to have a Cameron* moment, but there were really too many people there for deep self-contemplation. real art
Also, you gotta love a museum that includes quality 19th century tchotchke--the complete set!--like this monkey band... monkey band ...not to mention the paperweight collection: paperweights
One of the most stunning exhibits was the Thorne Miniature Rooms. There are 68 rooms, recreated in painstaking detail. These go way beyond dollhouse rooms. Each tiny carpet is hand-stitched on 30-count mesh. The furniture is handcrafted. tiny room There is a series of rooms showing every room in an English house in the Georgian period, the late Tudor period, Jacobean period and the Modern period. Then there is a series showing a the rooms of French house in the Louis XV and Revolutionary periods. Then there are sitting rooms from most US states, and from different periods. And on it goes. I wanted way more than the 15 minutes we had to run past them all!
tiny people have UFOs, too But it was comforting to see that even these wee stitchers had UFOs, too. =)

And now for some blog candy...who can tell me what fictional character this symbol reminds them of? I'm thinking of one referred to in a TV series that was on in the last 5 years. You've got until October 31st to dig up the answer. OK, that's two big hints already. Email me at heather at lottloft dot com, with "blog candy" in the subject line. If I don't get any correct answers by next week, I'll start posting more hints. If I get more than one, I'll draw a winner for some blog candy. name that symbol

JiffNotes
Day one of five...stay tuned for more pizza eating, more museums, and more bus drama than you can shake a stick at!

* And watch "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," for goodness' sake!!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Vacating...

I'll be in Chicago with the spouse and his parents for the next five days. Maybe there will be pictures when I return! Just wanted to let you know why there's no new posts showing up...as opposed to normally when posts aren't showing up because I'm so busy.... =) Thanks for hanging in there!

Old Geek-outs