Where in the World...

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...have I been?? You know, I was wondering why I haven't been blogging, then I started writing this summary and realized how busy my weekends have been, and I remembered why! Of course, that's no excuse for this month, except that maybe I have needed a few weekends of doing nothing to recover. When I looked at all the pictures I'd taken in May, June and July, I felt a little faint, so I told myself I'd do the "pick just one picture" thing again. Maybe if there's some interest, I'll share some more. ;)

So here's what I've been up to...

May

• Took Michael's parents on a Mother's Day tour of gardens, followed by Comedy of Errors at the Shakespeare Tavern

• Had a nice Mother's Day lunch with my family
• Took my niece to see the Atlanta Ballet and the Gardens

June

• Went to Savannah and Amelia Island for our anniversary
Breakfast on our verandah!
• Took Michael's parents to the brand new Delta Flight Museum for Father's Day, followed by my first ever golfing attempt (emphasis on "attempt")
You can't make these people stop for a picture...
• Celebrated Father's Day with my family
• Spent a whirlwind three days at a family wedding event...seeing relatives from all over the country, visiting the World of Coke, the Aquarium, attending a fiesta...and fortunately I was spared the golfing!

July

• Hosted my family for Independence Day, including hot dogs, fireworks and plenty of food!
Yummy salad my sister made...and so festive. ;)
The view from our deck!

I'll try to be a little better about posting!

JiffNotes
Time with family is the theme this summer!!

A "Great" Way to Kill 9 Hours

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Yeah. So THAT happened.

Notice all the cars on the left whose brake lights AREN'T on? That's because they've been abandoned. And the only reason there's free space on the road is because we just made our way past a couple jackknifed tractor trailers, and the road there is a solid sheet of ice. Anyone not in our lane eventually slid over to the left.

In case you haven't heard, Atlanta experienced extreme gridlock last night (and today) due to unexpected snow volume. As a Southern city in a Southern state, we don't have a lot of snowplows lying around gathering dust, so when the weather forecasters say most of the storm is going to hit South of the city, what equipment the state does have is deployed there. And then when the storm actually hits the metro area, in the middle of the day, and EVERYONE leaves at once so the salt trucks can't even get on the highways, and all the tractor trailers don't have snow tires and spin out, you end up with people stuck on the highways overnight.

We were "lucky" and got home by 1am. I considered telling you the whole epic story of Michael's three hour journey to get me from five miles away, our hour quest to find an open restaurant (FAIL), and six hour journey to travel the fourteen miles home. But really, do you want to read all that? No! Let's look at some pretty snow instead!

I was hoping to add a snowman to this view, but of course my office, although closed, "encouraged" us to work from home, even though everyone had not even made it home! They're going to be open tomorrow, even though the Georgia Emergency Management Agency has issued a civil emergency message requesting that everyone stay off the roads until noon. I'm extremely disappointed in my company! I'll be working from home again.

At least I have plenty of cookies to keep me company.

Walnut Crescents, courtesy of the Cookie A Sock Club. My next shipment arrives next week...squee!

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I'm just happy to be home. +10 Geek Points for getting the top graphic reference. =)

The House That NyQuil Built

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So...yeah. I didn't mean to disappear for over a week, there, but illness has been running rampant through the Lottloft. First I was down with the start of a sinus infection, but I thought my few days of rest had me getting better. Then Michael fell to a wicked bout of bronchitis, where his fever climbed to 103 (of course, the day AFTER he went to the doctor, who told him his fever "wasn't high enough" to warrant any actual drugs). He was barely on the mend before I started a post nasal drip like a faucet, lost my voice and ended up incapacitated until...well, I'm still kind of incapacitated, but at least today, the thought of lifting the laptop onto my lap doesn't seem impossible. That's how fatigued I was...going up OR down the stairs required both hands on the handrails and a 10-minute nap. But I digress. (FINALLY, I hear you all saying!)

Before all that nonsense started, I was beginning to make some progress. I finished my sister's second mitt. You already know what it looks like, but I did want to get a good picture of the cuff before picking up the stitches for the mitt itself.

 

So, it's not a "good" picture, but at least you can see the design on the cuff.

I also did some work on Spring Garden Gate, while binge-watching Broadchurch in two nights. (OH MY GOSH, how great...and DISTURBING!!!...was that series??)

 

So happy those faux bullion knots are done now. They take FOREVER. I will hopefully do a little more work on this over the weekend when some stitching peeps are coming in town!

Before the illness set in, I was hoping to make a trip to the Gardens once the polar vortex had whirled its way out of town, so that I could play with one of my new Christmas toys...A MACRO LENS!! Instead, I shivered my way around the loft and took a few shots. Please enjoy my wonky faux bullions...they are ready for their closeup!

 

Hmm...or maybe not. These are definitely the best of the bunch! I'm not 100% sure I *want* to see my stitching this close, but you know you guys are going to benefit when Orchid Daze hits in just a few weeks!!

Later today...the Theme-a-licious February theme announcement!! (Unless I pass out first, in which case it will be tomorrow. =)

JiffNotes
Sickness reigns, but things are looking up...and UP CLOSE!

The 12 Disasters of Christmas

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And now for a special holiday edition of First World Problems! Here's your post-holiday quiz...which of the following twelve disasters befell the Lottloft before Christmas?

1. The Christmas tree sustained a terrible gash at the hands of incompetent Home Depot staff, so it died in like a week.
2. Aforementioned injured tree fell with a spectacular crash. Three ornaments remain unbroken.
3. Although we own approximately 62 strings of lights, only two of them actually worked.
4. Michael gets sick enough to have to go to the doctor, resulting in loss of cookie baking time.
5. Michael loses a toe when he drops a stocking holder on his foot in a bout of illness-induced vertigo.
6. While taking a vacation day, I am made late for a Christmas party because my office calls me to fix a problem created by someone else...who is also on vacation but is NOT called to fix his problem.
7. Our house fills with toxic black smoke and we have to evacuate.
8. Problems at work continue for a second day, meaning that to get ready for dinner and a show out with Michael's parents, I have to get ready one-handed while I type with the other.
9. On the third day of issues from work, there were no French hens, but ugly tears when I realize there's no way I can still get all the cookies baked and presents made on time.
10. Even though I've made the same cookies for six years in a row, this year's batch turns out flat as crispy little pancakes.
11. Pre-Christmas rain exacerbated some leaks in the Lottloft, causing water to pour through new holes in the ceiling.
12. I realize I've made a mistake on my sister's knitted mitts...50 rounds back.

One of these is made up, three are exaggerated, but the rest TOTALLY HAPPENED. Ready to see the answers?

1. Gashed Christmas tree - TRUE
   I always take a piece of ribbon with me the same length as our tree stand is deep, so I know which branches to tell them to cut off. A "helpful" employee made a mark on the trunk at that height, but the guy with the buzz saw thought that meant where he should CUT OFF THE TRUNK. My high-pitched screeches stopped his saw after he'd cut through the trunk about 1/3 of the way. They offered to give us a taller tree (duh...it wouldn't fit), but we'd already spent an hour picking this one out, so we decided to risk it. The tree refused to drink any water and is now a nine-foot-tall fire hazard.
2. Tree crash - FALSE
   I am an engineer, after all.
3. Massive light failure - EXAGGERATED
   There were a few strands of lights that didn't work, but they were old outside lights, and no big loss.
4. Michael's ill - TRUE
   Poor guy; he had a sinus infection. He was laid flat for two days (ministrations caused me to lose some additional prep time) and had to go in to work later, on the day before family festivities.
5. Michael loses a toe - EXAGGERATED
   He "just" hurt his foot pretty bad. But in later days, continuing sickness-induced clumsiness caused him to kick a door with the other foot, and bang each of his knees several times.
6. Idiot coworker ruins Christmas - TRUE
   Did I mention that I received the call right after we got home from taking Michael to the doctor and the pharmacy? When I was thinking, OK, I CAN STILL MAKE THIS CHRISTMAS THING HAPPEN!
7. Toxic black smoke - TRUE
   A rubber-handled pizza cutter fell on the heating element in the dishwasher. I realized soon that I needed to get my spouse's infected sinuses to fresh air, so we went up to the deck. Luckily, it was 60 (degrees F). Unluckily, it was windy and the wifi only reached so far, so I had to sit with my back against the deck door (on the floor) to get reception. Because I was working. Yeah...this happened pretty much right after the call. I had to throw out another batch of cookies due to smoke pollution.
8. Getting ready one-handed - TRUE
   Yeah. Although I told them I needed to leave, they kept asking questions. I finally just shut the computer and left.
9. Work still can't do anything without me - TRUE
   It's nice to be needed, but this is ridiculous. All told, I lost over 12 hours of baking and prep time.
10. Sudden cookie problems - TRUE
    Not tragic, but did I mention this happened after the whole illness-noxious fumes-work apocalypse thing?
11. Water pours through the ceiling - TRUE
    Seriously?? My Christmas present was supposed to be having leaks fixed, not having more turn up!
12. Knit mitt mistake - EXAGGERATED
    It was only four rows back. I did however take about six tries...I think?...to pick up stitches on the cuff for the mitt just before I realized my mistake. I managed to get one mitt done for my sister. *sigh* At least she crafts, too, so she understands. Plus, she showed up with a handmade ornament for me...that she was supposed to give me last year. =)

So how'd you do? Did you guess correctly?

I hope your New Year has fewer problems than my run up to Christmas!

JiffNotes
No real disasters, my holiday plans were just derailed a bit by an idiot at work!

NaBloNoAtAlMo

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That's National Blog Not At All Month, which is what I seem to have been following for the past few months. We all know I went to London (and Oxford) for two weeks at the end of August and beginning of September (ooo, look at megalomaniacal me, thinking you all keep up with what I'm doing)--and still haven't bothered to post pictures--muttered something about work being bad--went to a Jane Nicholas class--and made more mutterings about work being bad. That has really been what's been keeping me away from the computer--work, and also this:

 

You are looking at the innards of my Kindle Touch. Its battery died sometime in...September? October? Anyway, I replaced the battery, but in doing so, I knocked a cable loose, which caused it to freeze up randomly. Of course, I didn't know that at the time, so I spent about three weeks figuring out how to "debrick" it (i.e., turn it from a paperweight back into a useful device), running the operator diagnostics on it, and finally taking the entire thing apart in a last-ditch attempt to make it useable before selling it for parts. Well, when I watched the video on taking it apart, I realized how loose the connection is on the cable that's right by the battery, so I fixed it. By this time, of course, I'd already ordered a new Paperwhite. So now Michael has a trusty Kindle of his own. =)

So: Work. Pretty much right when I got back, I was thrust into a project that required all my time and then some. For three weeks in October, the project team was sequestered in a room together and they brought in lunch for us. This culminated with a go-live where we were all up until 2am (fortunately, I was working from home that day). The go-live went off without a hitch! The upside to being holed up in a room all that time was that it protected me from the company's new "noise masking" system. Basically, there's now a constant, loud hiss coming from the ceiling (brown noise, not white noise, if you're interested). IT DRIVES ME INSANE. It was not as loud in the room we were in, but now that I'm back "in the wild," well...let's just say I may not be around there too much longer.

This kind of work stress meant that when I got any free time, I wanted to be outside, away from the computer!! We went to a somewhat cool, somewhat pretentious outdoor art night...

 

...where people danced in urban spaces...

 
tiny dancers are tiny

...became part of the show...

 

...and made artistic statements...

 

This last one was my favorite, actually. It was about people with dementia. The artist would paint with water on the black board, and then sit back down as the memory he'd written faded away. He wouldn't get up again until it was completely gone. I thought it was good art that made you think...unlike the giant milkshake fountain (water colored white) that was supposed to be a commentary on our super-size-me culture. It was just...ugly and uninteresting.

We visited the Botanical Gardens, where the Imaginary Worlds exhibit looked very different from when things were first planted. Earth spirit's hair is grown in...

 

...the bunnies hide in tall grass...

 

...and the frogs have mohawks!

 

We went on a couple hikes. We had gone to Sweetwater Creek State Park, which takes you along Sweetwater Creek...

 

...and by the ruins of a textile mill burned in the Civil War.

 

We took a little picnic lunch...

 

...climbed on the rocks...

 

...and admired the wildlife.

 

When this lovely fella took off, I laughed at all the people with their camera phones capturing blurred dots, because...

 

...zoom lens and adjustable shutter speed FTW!!

The next "hike" was really more of a walk. For some reason we thought we'd be able to drive up somewhere to see pretty leaves the day after my project went live...bwahahaha!! I slept until 11am! So we just went up to walk by the Chattahoochee River near Akers Mill. Stalker heron followed me there.

 

This was a very pretty walk; lots of great moss!

 

I did manage to stitch a little on Friday on my stumpwork piece, but the rest of the weekend I was laid up on the couch. At first I thought I was fighting off a sinus infection, but this feels different. Flu? Random cold? Who knows?! Oh, it's just nonstop excitement here, let me tell you! At least it was a great excuse to watch lots of special features off The Hobbit Blu-Ray. =) Stitching pictures soon!

JiffNotes
I came, I overworked, I got sick. So did my Kindle, but it's better now. Also: Nature!

The Geekend That Was, 9/29

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Well, it's been a while since I did one of these updates! I still haven't gotten all the London and Oxford pictures sorted, but at least they've all been transferred to one computer!

This weekend we complemented our London and Oxford tours of art by catching the last day that Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (among other works) was being exhibited at the High Museum.

 

Of course, no pictures were allowed in the exhibition. But between this one and a couple museums we went to in London, we've now seen the majority of his works. Michael said we should make up a scorecard and check off the last few. =)

After the exhibition we were both really tired from the week, so we took a little pick-me-up to the deck.

 

It was a gorgeous Fall day and perfect weather for a little tea on the deck. I think we should implement a tea hour here in the States during working hours!

Sunday and Monday I was very fortunate to have the opportunity of taking a class with Jane Nicholas. I have been "on call" for jury duty for the past week, so I was really sweating whether or not I'd be able to make it to the class on Monday. I have to call in EVERY NIGHT to see if I need to come in the next day. Bleah. Anyway, when I signed up for the class, I kind of missed the part where I was signing up for the ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE one. So when I read that Saturday night, I kind of panicked and only got about 5 hours of sleep. And I also showed up at the wrong location and was about 20 minutes late for class. Fabulous first impression I make there. But it all turned out OK. I did also severely overestimate the size of the project. It's way tinier than I thought!! Here's what I got done during the two days of class (and a little "homework" Saturday night):

 

Notice the size 28 petite needle in the upper left-hand corner! It was a crazy two days. Also, there were FAMOUS PEOPLE in my class. Janice Love, ya'll!! IN MY CLASS!! I almost passed out when I saw her nametag. She's very nice and had a crazy piece of Elizabethan needlework with her. Of course, I forgot my camera both days!! And also, Barbara Rakosnik! "Fortunately" I didn't realize who she was until later or I'd probably have made more of an idiot out of myself.

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If there's one thing I love, it's taking needlework classes. And I may or may not have squeed a little when I finished that blue beetle...SO CUTE!

Miss Me?

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I bet some of you didn't even know I was gone, eh? It seems a little strange to make a great public post that our place is going to be empty for two weeks, so I was vague about when we were going. Last Sunday we got back from two weeks in London (and Oxford). I had to go back to work the next day, and I was greeted with the news that I had a deadline at 10 AM the next morning! Jet lag and instant stress don't go great together, in case you were wondering. Anyway, the trip was wonderful, and I'm starting to go through the approximately 4,000 pictures I took. Eventually a small fraction of them will show up here. =)

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Back from two weeks in London!

More Fizzle than Sizzle

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Well. That wasn't fun. We have our internet back, and we're getting a discount for the month (I would hope so!!) Talk about your "first world" problems. So, I promised you a long, boringdetailed story about how it happened.

Click here to skip to actual pictures, your internet's back, who cares already!!!

A few weeks ago, our power went out for a second around midnight. This is very unusual for us, since we're very close to a substation, and we're on the same power grid as some rather substantial power clients (*cough*Coke*cough*). What was really weird was that there were no thunderstorms in the area. We didn't think too much about it, but the next morning, something else weird happened: Traffic was backed up outside our place. This only happens if there are two large events happening simultaneously in Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome. But this was at 9 AM! When we backed out of the garage, we could see the issue. About a block and half from us, the street was closed. We did not put two and two together at that point because there were too many flashing lights to see what happened, and I really hate being a rubbernecker.

Later that afternoon when I was able to drive past again, I could see what the issue had been. There was a new telephone (and power) pole, with a giant chunk of the old one (probably 10 feet--3 meters--long) DANGLING from the new one, with all the wires still wrapped around it!!! I really wish I'd gotten a picture of it. Someone must have hit the old pole; there are no trees near it and I can't imagine that it just fell over. I can, however, easily imagine an idiot slamming into it...we've seen it happen before!

Nothing happened for a week.

Then, one afternoon, a thunderstorm with high winds rolled through. Downtown, there were traffic lights turned sideways. When we got to our place, our phone was out. I suspect the high winds buffeted the dangling chunk of telephone pole (oh, yes, it was still there after a week!) and knocked something loose.

So now, we simply call in on one of our cell phones to say our phone is out, right? Easy! Except...we couldn't find the number to call! We have cheap cell phones (pay as you go), so they're not with our land line provider. We throw out our phone books the moment they arrive because we look everything up...ON THE INTERNET. Phone bill! We can get the number from the phone bill! Yeah, you know, that thing that I get e-billed to me, which I pay...ON THE INTERNET. I thought I was going to have to call someone and ask them for the number (how embarrassing!) but I found the flyer we got when we signed up for our DSL, and we called that number. It took a disturbingly long time to battle our way through the menus just to tell someone our phone was out (not a menu option).

The next day Michael got a call from the service guy, who said that once he showed up, all our neighbors started popping their heads out of their doors like sideways prairie dogs and saying their phones were out, too. WHY DIDN'T YOU PEOPLE CALL???!? He said it was an issue with the cable to the whole street (YA THINK??) and a different crew would have to repair it before he could check our line. That was Thursday. All weekend, we still had no internet or phone.

OH my gosh is anyone still reading?? Seriously??? You deserve a prize. Leave a comment telling me about the last first world problem you felt embarrassed to even complain about (by Sunday) and I'll have a little drawing. =)

Monday we got a call from the same service guy who said the ticket had shown up in his queue, but when he got out there he realized the cable work had still not been done (by this time, there was a pile of "logs" sitting next to the new telephone pole). A few days later, we had service again, but we had to make a special call to billing to get our discount (though they cheerfully and immediately credited us, that would not have happened if we hadn't called).

Whew! Now for some fun stuff. Last time we "talked", I was anticipating getting some better fireworks pictures than last year.

 

Yeah...that didn't happen. It rained so much the week before, that the air was completely saturated. In fact, it had rained off and on all day, so I didn't even bother setting up the tripod. There were some very, VERY low-hanging clouds, and combined with the smoke from the fireworks, after a few minutes, it was a lot like watching a lava lamp.

 

By the end, it just looked like the city was on fire.

 

Camp Loopy is kind of destroying me...I made it through the first two projects (I'll show you the second one in the Theme-a-licious wrap up =) but I'm not sure if I'll make it through the third. I'm also trying to keep up with the Cookie A Sock Club. They'd probably never get done if I weren't doing them two at a time...

I'm doing a lot better keeping up with the cookies. =)

 

These Ginger Molasses cookies include TWO THIRDS OF A CUP of chopped crystallized ginger. And they're the first ones I've had that have ENOUGH ginger. =)

And just for fun, here are my two missing TUSALs...June's is filled with blue from Monochrome May...

 

...and July's with a lot of yarn from Camp Loopy.

 

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A washed-out Fourth is still not as bad as when it's raining fire.

Happy Independence Day!

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To all my fellow Americans, Happy Independence Day! Hope you get to see some good fireworks tonight!

I took these pictures last year, and it will be interesting to see if I can improve my technique this year. I will use a tripod this year, so that should help. Here's what we can see from our deck:

 

That's looking towards Centennial Olympic Park. If we look to our right, we can usually catch bits of at least three other far-off fireworks displays.

If I let the camera do what it wants on auto, it wants to brighten up the whole shot.

 

So I started playing around with the shutter speed. At first, I thought I wanted a relatively long shutter speed, thinking that catching the trails of the fireworks would look cool. But I found I liked the sharper look.

 

The real challenge seems to be getting a good point of focus; this year when I'm using the tripod, I'll manually focus in advance. The camera had to focus on something, so it was picking the buildings in the background, which didn't necessarily make for the sharpest focus on the fireworks.

If I cranked the shutter speed too fast, it wouldn't even capture the pinpoints lights of the fireworks that well.

 

This is one of my favorites...seems to be a good balance!

 

We'll see how I do this year!

JiffNotes
I like to watch fireworks up close, but it seems safer to do it from our deck!

Catchup

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Sorry I disappeared there for a little while! Work has been really crazy; my boss (and coding cohort) has been on vacation for the past two weeks, and so I've been trying to hold down a job and a half, at least. Last Thursday I worked until 11pm! Yikes. She gets back today, just as we are taking off for a long weekend (for our 16th anniversary!) on Amelia Island. Yeah...that would be pretty much in the path of Andrea, but we still intend to have a good time. =)

Memorial Day weekend was nice; we got to see Oblivion (great movie with some plot holes, but great plot twist and SFX), did some chores and finally got the plants out on the deck.

 

We're already been using some of the herbs. =)

 

I decided to drink from the cup of crazy and join Camp Loopy this year. I've wanted to join for the past couple years, so I finally did it. My first project will be a "basic" (and I use that term loosely) black scarf.

 

I did my gauge swatch and decided to go down a needle size.

 

This project will be christened "Cinco de Cuatro" in honor of the return of Arrested Development. =) It was going to be called "Raven Dare", since I had just finished reading The Swan House (a good read) and since I'm supposed to get it done in a month, but Arrested Development won out (plus the pattern is "Mexican Wedding").

JiffNotes
Lots more catchup to come after we're back...hopefully I'll get some time to visit your Theme-a-licious checkins while we're gone! (Bad SAL runner!)