Jen FitzGerald's Blog, page 103

Happy Friday!

I'm definitely glad it's Friday...I know, I know, who isn't usually glad it's Friday, right?

But it's been a tough week for DH and I'm glad it's at an end. Not only did we have one of our (two) techs on vacation, but DH was hit with a ton of forensic work, so he'd been going on mostly fumes until last night. He was able to get a full night's sleep finally.

Now, me...my week hasn't been quite that awful. It started off last Sunday with a lovely three plus visit with my dear friend, Nancy. We always have such rich and varied conversations and I can always count on her to be supportive and excited about my fan girl proclivities. Not everyone gets it, but she's been a fan girl herself so she knows whence forth I come! Thanks, Nancy!!!

One of the things we talked about was cross stitching. Nancy used to create patterns for publication a few moons ago, so she's a great critiquer and resource. Anyway, I've been creating original cross stitch patterns and contemplating selling both the completed project as well as the patterns themselves on Etsy. My hand graphed patterns wouldn't be good enough quality to scan and sell, so I researched cross stitch pattern making programs for the computer and found a couple, made a choice and purchased it.

Then of course I had to play with it, and once I got it figured out and one of my patterns created, then printed--what a rush to see my pattern looking all official!! I giggled with glee. I really did. So I've been stitching and digitizing my patterns for the past couple of days. Look, a quick example...it's hard to see and looks much better in physical reality.


Tomorrow is also writers group so I'm excited to see my writer peeps and catch up with them. Our visit was cut short last month as I had another event and had to skip our meeting after the meeting.

So...it's Friday. Hope you have a super weekend!

Fall is creeping in...

The day's heat hasn't had quite the intensity and the overnight temps are dropping into the mid-60s and morning ball with Rayna is quite delightful. The leaves of one tree have started to fall as well. I'm definitely ready to cut back on the running of the AC and will have my windows open anytime the temperature are conducive.

This past weekend, I bought these leaf dishes at our resident Michael's...cute huh?



When I pulled the stickers off the bottom, I read that they are oven, microwave, and dishwasher safe, so DH had a wicked idea--pumpkin cake baked in them! Sounded like a great idea and since I had all the makings of pumpkin cake in the cupboard, I went for it!


Not too bad looking!
No sprinkles yet, but as those don't make much difference taste-wise...
Hope you're having a great week.

One last post about my trip...

After Seattle, DH and I traveled to Omaha to see another branch of my family...

Back in February, my babiest sister gave birth to my nephew six weeks before he should have arrived. Her amniotic fluid was so low, he was safer out in the world than inside his mommy's tummy. Anyway, all's well that ends well and baby Colton is doing just fine. But I wanted to see him before he was no longer a baby.

So here are my nephews and me...


Colton on the left and Austyn on the right.
He's a super happy baby!
(Being held by DH.)

In addition to seeing my nephews, I also went to see my dad's grave.


I'd bought a half dozen patriotic pinwheels here in Texas, but, alas, forgot to grab them on our way out of town so had to do with the paltry offering of the local big box store. But better than nothing!

It was great to see everyone, but I'm glad to me home again, home again, and back to my regularly scheduled routine, my own home (BED!), and of course, the dog. :)

Visiting Sonshine...

Now, the only reason I even got to go to Seattle was because DH was invited to speak at a conference at Microsoft's headquarters, but we flew in a few days before the conference so that we could hang with Sonshine.

On Saturday, he showed us around the base a bit--his dorm room, his ship (from outside the fence only), and the NEX (Navy Exchange, like a department store) and commissary (grocery store)--before we headed back to the hotel and just hung out and enjoyed each other's company. Sonshine wanted his Xbox One from home, so the boys were able to spend quality father/son time together. :) I just soaked up Sonshine's presence.



On Sunday, we took the ferry (to say we did it) into Seattle and visited the EMP Museum.




The museum was a hit with one and all.

 Sonshine, next to wall painted like a Mario screen...one of his first video game loves.


 Costumes from Star Wars, obviously, one of the exhibits.



The Chuck Jones animation exhibit...


And while we didn't go up in the Space Needle, we saw it, as it was right behind the museum!


After the museum, we had our perfect meal as mentioned in Wednesday's post.

Have a great weekend!

The Perfect Meal

About a month ago, I was asked on one of my social media groups what the perfect meal would be and with whom I would want to share it...

Well, for me, it was more about the who first and the what second. The most important part was that I was able to make it happen.


A week ago Sunday, DH, Sonshine and I enjoyed pizza at The Rock in Seattle! Now I just picked this place off a random Internet list, but it couldn't really have been more fitting, seeing as how Sonshine loves music so much. I'm a bit partial to it too.

The three of us - picture taken graciously by our server.
There were album covers all over the place and the upholstery on the booths sported song names...

Even the liner papers for the take home boxes was musically themed...though I can't find the picture of that. :)

And not as important as the company, but the pizza was delicious!

Home again...

It's been a crazy ten days as I've been traveling! But I'm back and ready to share some pictures. I can't share everything because of some of the things going on in the world. I don't want to put my son or any of our military in danger.

I saw my momma for the first time in  sixteen years and that was such a wonderful treat! It was hard to say goodbye at the airport.

Here we are...the same but sixteen years older.


More on Wednesday!

American Fun Fact!

This week's fun fact is that in Montana, cows outnumber people 3 to 1!

(Image from Wikipedia)Crazy, huh?

Movie Monday

Not a movie, actually, but a TV series... The BBC's The Musketeers...


Based on Alexander Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers, but aside from the names and perhaps a few background basics, I think that's where the similarities end--though in the interest of full disclosure--I have not read the book.

Anyway, it's a bit cheeky, though not in any way a comedy, and full of lovely men and women and sword fighting!

The series focuses on the core group of Musketeers Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and newbie D'Artagnan and their various missions and the bits of personal trouble each one of them gets themselves into.


Have you seen it? What do you think?

American Fun Fact!

I forgot to post this Wednesday, so here it is today...though I don't if this fact is "fun" so much as interesting or just plain sad...

Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, CA(Photo taken by Joe Ravi, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
The fact... Apple, Inc. has more operating cash than the U.S. Treasury.

Yeah...

Happy Friday, friends. Have a great weekend. :)

I'm movin' on up...

Today I get a smart phone!

(image from apple.com)
Well, technically I have the phone--it's Sonshine's old one--but I'm going to Verizon today and switching out my old dumb phone for a smart phone. Can't wait! I'll have Google maps when I'm driving around and weather access if power goes out. But also, yeah, Internet access & social media access wherever I go. Oh, and Netflix...

Can't wait!!