Belize

 It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted.  Once again this post will be light on stitching because not much stitching is going on around here.  Since I have been cooped up all winter, I try to spend as much time outside as I can.  I do take my stitching to the terrace but if it is windy or dusty, I don't like it being outside.  I have been traveling and reading to keep my idle mind going. 

 Last week we were in Belize.  Not to insult any one's intelligence but Belize is the country right below Mexico in Central America.  When I booked this trip, I thought it was an island in the Caribbean Sea.  Shows I know little about this world.  We flew into Belize City and took a small plane to San Pedro which is an island about 15 minutes flying time from the mainland.  Belize is a hidden gem.  It is a British Territory so they speak English as a primary language and Spanish is their second language.  The country is poor but the people are so nice and friendly.  The condo we stayed in was guarded but it was only surrounded by a two foot high wall and a guy with a billy club so I don't think they were expecting much trouble.   My husband enjoyed the diving and had a dive master that he was very comfortable with.





The Phoenix

Above is a picture of the condo complex from the sea.  We had a lovely one bedroom condo in the building in the back of the photo.  The kitchen was granite and stainless steel, it had a large bathroom, laundry, a great deck, and maid service twice a day.  This is not a place where you go for the beach which does not matter to me because I enjoy sitting by the pool.  Their beaches where small and kind of dirty with sea weed.  The food was wonderful.  I ate fish about every meal.  They were big on shrimp and I really like shrimp.  Their curried, coconut shrimp was on a lot of menus and it was delicious.  This trip was so great that we booked a week in February before we left.  If you booked before you left, you get 20% off your next visit.  

View from the terrace of the Caribbean Sea

View from the beach towards the dive shop

The bed on our first night

Chicken Drop

One of the big things to do on Thursday night is go to the Chicken Drop.  No animals were hurt but I would guess if this happened in the US, PETA would be all over it.  Rumor has it the birds are feed beer all day.  The board above is used in the chicken drop.  The squares are numbered one to one hundred.  You buy a square for a dollar and there is a new chicken every 20 minutes for a couple of hours.  A chicken is brought out to someone in the crowd.  The person holds the chicken, circles it around three times, shakes the chicken, blows on her behind, and puts the chicken on the board.  Where the chicken craps is the winning square and the winner gets the $100 dollar pot.  It was hysterical.  We did not win nor did we blow on a chickens behind.  I guess when some chickens feel the air, there have been some accidents on the tourist doing the blowing.  The chickens way of getting even for her humiliation. 

While I was on vacation I did read a lot.  I read Bloody Mary by J A Konrath.  It was a good beach read about a Chicago Detective/murder mystery.  It is the second book in the Jack Daniels series.  I read The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.  This book was down right depressing but I wanted to read it because it was set in Budapest in WWII.  I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in a day.  This is a young adult book but it was really good for any age.  The Snowman by Jo Nesbo is this months book club book.  This book has been compared to The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo because both authors are from Norway.  It was a good book and a good mystery to read on the beach.  Still Missing by Chevy Stevens was a really good book.  It was kind of like The Room where someone is kidnapped and held hostage for a year in a small shack.  The writing style of this book was interesting.  Finally, I read Unbroken:  A Wold War II Story.  This book got 5 stars by 3,000+ people on Amazon.  I am one of the few people that was not blown away by this book.  It was good but every time I would think it could not get any worse for this guy, something else horrible happened to him.  I would have enjoyed a little more positive in this story. 

We are going downstate this weekend to visit my family for Father's Day.  I am not looking forward to the drive.  It is so much easier to see them in Florida than drive three hours south.  Tonight is a dinner with 15 of our close friends and Sunday night is a street fair in my neighborhood so it is a packed weekend. 

Hope you have a great weekend! 



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.

 Good Morning and welcome to my new followers.  This is typically a stitching blog but today it is a travel blog.  I have been traveling in Eastern Europe with my mom.  My husband won two ticket to Europe on American Airlines last spring at a charity event.  He was not willing to fly to Europe in coach so he gave his ticket to my mom.  We chose Eastern Europe because it was an area of Europe that neither one of us has visited before and mom wanted to go on a tour.  I did not think I could tolerate a bus of seniors and moving luggage daily though Italy so we went on a river cruise. 

Our trip started with a three day visit to Prague.  Prague has been a city that I have wanted to visit for a while.  It is beautiful.  You have to be careful in Prague.  One person on our trip had her passport pick pocketed and another couple was mugged.  You could not take taxi's because they were not all safe so it made you walk.  It was not an easy walk because everything was cobblestones.  I bought a pair of ugly Birkenstocks and they were wonderful for walking on cobblestones.   

 Our first tour was included on package and it was a general overview of Prague.  Above is Prague Castle.  Mom was all about the tours.  We ended up taking about every optional tour.  We felt money spent on tours was better spent than buying trinkets along the way. 

 This is the town square in Prague.

One thing we found very interesting about Prague and the Czech Republic was the formally communist aspects of the country.  Many of our guides would not talk about communism and they would not talk about the communist housing that was everywhere.  I really did not put everything together that the Czech Republic has only been free of communism since 1989.  The picture of the square is bright and colorful, the picture above is how most of the buildings looked in 1989.  They did not have the supplies to maintain the buildings so you still see buildings being rehabbed and a few are in disrepair.  

Most of our trip was on this ship.  River cruising is a neat way to get around.  I would take another river cruise someday when I am old enough to travel this way.  The people on the tour were generally old enough to retire without penalty.  I knew it would be another generation when I signed up for a tour but it was nice to have everything planned for you.  

 This is the town square in Nuremberg.  The clock went around in a song and dance at noon.

 This was a optional tour that took us down the Danube Gorge.

 Cesky Krumlov was one of our favorite cities on the tour.  It was an optional day tour from Germany back into the Czech Republic.  It was a quaint town with a castle and twisted streets. 

 Above is Schonbrunn Imperial Palace in Vienna.  This Palace did have some beautiful embroidery and needlepoint chairs.  Schonbrunn was having an Easter market that was fun to walk through.  We were just a little early in the season for the spring flowers.  Vienna was mainly just a city with tons of high end shopping.  You really have to question why Burberry and Escada need to be on every corner.  You would think that such a specific target market could walk around the corner to the nearest store.

Above is the Hungarian Parliament building in Pest.  It was such a beautiful building.  The government was in session so we could not go inside.  Many people do not realize that Budapest is actually two cities, Buda & Pest divided by the Danube.  We only got to spend a day in Budapest but I will be back.  This is an amazing city.  I want to spend time at the spas and doing more exploring.  I wish now we would have extended our stay by a day or two.  Oh well, it gives me and DH a place to visit.  Below is a picture from their Central Market which was a foodies delight.  They also had lots of Hungarian needle work but I was sceptical of what was real and what was made in China.  Anyway, what am I going to do with a doily in a loft in Chicago. 



I we visited several other cities in Germany and Austria but I am not going to bore you with any more travel pictures.  If you ever get a chance to visit Eastern Europe it is well worth the visit. 

It is a good thing I had the travel pictures to show this week because I have not picked up a needle since Monday.  I have been busy with work and little things after work.  This weekend has both of our large charity events.  Tonight is the fundraiser for Lincoln Park Community Shelter and Sunday is the Chicago House Brunch, an AIDS charity.  It is a shame they both fall on the same weekend.  I don't have a dress for tonight so I think I will wear what I wore last year.  The dress I bought to wear on Sunday will look ridiculous in 50 degree weather so I am going to have to do something else for that party. 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  Thanks for taking the time to read this long post.



Back to Blogging

Danube - on the way to Vienna

 Good morning!  I am back from holiday.  I have a ton of pictures which I will not make you suffer through all of them but I would like to talk about a few places I visited.  It was fascinating to visit formerly communist countries.  I will show you the pictures a little later this week because I don't have my pictures on this computer and I could not get them uploaded to the Internet this morning.  Let's just say it was a wonderful trip and mom and I are still speaking to each other after two weeks together.  That would not have happened twenty years ago...

I did get a tiny bit of stitching done on holiday.  Last night I finished Be Merry on 40 count silk gauze.  I loved this project!  It got tons of attention when I was stitching in airports, on planes, on buses, and on boats.  I also started a Princess and Me ornament but I have very little progress to show so no pictures.  I have another trip in early June which will be much more relaxing and I should be able to get some stitching done.

Things are slowly getting back to normal.  Work is under control, I my sleeping patterns are normal, I have said Hi to lots of friends, laundry is done, the house is clean, and tomorrow night is a massage.  The Hawk and the Bulls are in the Playoffs so that will keep me busy.   Maybe tonight we can flip between the games and I can work on one of my larger projects. 

Thanks for visiting and happy stitching!!

A Brief Blogging Vacation

 Good morning,  I wanted to have one quick post before I leave for vacation and I am not taking a computer.  I made some progress on my silk gauze project.  I really wanted to have this done before I left but that is not going to happen.

I am on row 10 of Walking on Waters Edge.  I have pulled all my threads together for rows ten through fifteen.  This project is too much fun.  I just need some more time with it. 

I leave tomorrow night for a 12 day cruise down the Danube from Prague to Budapest.  Now any would be robbers reading my little stitching blog, the house will not be left alone.  DH is staying behind on this trip to work.  I am going on this trip with my mother and I am sure I will have stories to tell you when I get home about how two people that have not lived together since the mid-80's get along for an extended period of time:)  Thanks goodness for wine included in the trip price.

Thanks for reading my blog and commenting.  I will be back in a couple of weeks.