Still Reading

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!  I have completely lost my stitching mojo and I am hoping to get it back in a couple of weeks.  Right now I just don't have time to stitch or when I have some time I have been reading.   Since I don't have any stitching to share, I thought I would show you my flowers on the terrace and the front balcony.  Planting flowers takes lots of time.  I had to go to three nursery's to find everything I needed.  We love the flower boxes in England with lots of flowers and plants flowing over.  I think this years boxes will be beautiful when they fill in a bit more.  I cram in the plants.  The boxes on the terrace each have 14 plants per box. 

The front balcony is shaded most of the day and Inpatients do really well up front.  I bought these in flats and each box has 42 plants.  I found a really cute table and chairs at one of the nursery's last weekend that I might have to go and buy.  It was expensive so that is the only thing holding me back a bit but any more everything is expensive. 

In my free time, I have been reading.  I read The Secret Holocaust Diary which was very sad and interesting.  It was a free or nearly free book on Kindle.  I also read The Static of the Spheres which is a novella and also free but this one was not even worth reading for free.   I subscribe to the Random House Book Club newsletter and about once a year they send me a free book.  Last week they sent me The Passage by Justin Cronin.  It is really good.  I would have never have bought this book because it was overpriced on Kindle and did not have enough star to justify the price but I am enjoying the first 100 pages or so.  If I continue to like it I will look at other things Justin has written so it was worth their time and money to send me this book.  I am also reading Executive Privilege on Kindle and IPad. 

Speaking of IPad...What a cool toy!!  No reason in the world to own one other than to play on the Internet and with the Apple Aps but it sure kills time.  I can keep up with all your blogs while I am on vacation.  How cool is that?

Saturday is the Soldier Field 10k which my husband and friends are running in.  Later in the day people will be over for a BBQ.  Sunday is our condo planting flowers in the common areas and then our neighbor is having his 40th birthday party.  Finally, Monday is a trip to my SIL's for another BBQ and a neighborhood parade.  Between all of this I have to get ready for my vacation because every night next week is busy.  Just crazy!

Enjoy the long weekend with your family, friends, books, and loads of stitching.

Reading Rather than Stitching

Happy Monday!  I don't have any stitching to show today because so little stitching has been done.  Instead, I have been reading.  It is so nice to sit outside with a book and get some vitamin D after the long winter.  Not that this past weekend was anything but wet and dreary but the week was warm.

Work gave me a crap project so I had Kindle read to me the Killing Room by John Manning while I did my data entry project.  This was just a murder mystery that did not require thinking to get the point.  It was actually a free book on Kindle when I first found it.  I really enjoyed the book until the end and the Zombies came out.  I had been given The Help by Kathryn Stockett to read a while back.  I absolutely loved this book and finished it in two days. 

I had other fun this weekend.  My Guild meeting was on Saturday.  It was a little boring getting everyone to agree what to do for our 30th Anniversary and I still don't think we have anything resolved.  I also had a nephew's First Holy Communion on Saturday.  We did not go to the church but we went to the family party.  We had a dinner party on Saturday night which was fun.  The condo we were at was next to a venue where the new Mayor Rahm was attending an event.  We caught a glimpse  of him going into the party.  Our hood is hopping this week with Oprah's final shows, the Heat and the Bulls play game 2 on Wednesday night, and we are getting a new mayor today.  We are having a client event this week at work and it is impossible to get a room at any of the swanky hotels. 

My final exciting thing for the weekend was buying a new IPad 2.  It is purely a toy for us to play with on the terrace this summer and on vacations.  I am busy working out the bubbles from the non-glare film I put over the screen.  I have also been loading applications on the machine.  Our old laptop is five years old so I think this will replace that older machine.

That is about it for now.  Hope everyone has a wonderful week.  I hope to return to stitching this week since the weather is not going to be all that great until the end of the week.

I should hang my head in shame for the little bit I accomplished this week but oh well.  I had things going on after work every night last week so I did not get any stitching done.  I did get one thread into my travel project last week but that is not really all that exciting yet.  The canvas is by Princess and Me.  Notice the stellar job of basket weave in the gingerbread house:)  I was supposed to start with the snow but the stitch the stitch guide said to use is not working for me.  I am going to do something else for the snow. 

Saturday was the Derby and we all bought "Church Hats" for the event.  My friends were kind enough to buy my hat for me.  They were trying on hats in Sears and emailing me the options Friday night while I attended a dinner party.  You can see mine in my new profile picture on the blog.  It was a fun day.  My husband won a little money on the ponies and we had a good time with about fifteen friends at Bulls and Bear.  The party did not end after the race and continued on to dinner and early into Sunday morning.  We were respectful of all religious institutions and did not attend any church services on Sunday morning. 

Sunday ended up being a beautiful day.  I did not go downstate for Mother's Day.  Mom just got a call and a flower arrangement but my brother stepped up his game and took them out to dinner.  I sat out on the terrace and read Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon.  This is the second book in the series which I did enjoy.  They are just popcorn books of historical fiction but they are long, about 1,000 pages.  I have been working on this one for two months.  I will finish it today and move on to something else.  

Not much else is going on in my world.  Things are busy and stitching time is limited but I hope to get back into the swing of things soon. Happy Stitching.