A Finished Project!

I decided that I needed to challenge myself with learning a new quilt block. I know, I don't have enough on my plate already, right? Well, I wanted to try making a rounded pattern, since all I've ever really done has used 90 or 45 degree angles. I skimmed through my quilt book library, but couldn't quite find anything that spoke to me. So, just to make things harder on myself, I decided to improvise...

This should have turned out very, very badly. Given past experience with craft projects, it's usually a really bad idea to wing it on a new project when you're already overwhelmed with life in general and your behind schedule crafting obsession.

But, in a rare twist of fate, the quilt actually turned out well. Sure, it was a learning process (as intended), but I didn't have to rip out more than one seam and I absolutely LOVE the way it looks! I will be using this pattern again, to be sure. Oh, and the quilt is for Pastor and Cindy Koch, who are having their first little boy (first BOY, who will have four older sisters!).

Random photo: the light from the setting sun reflected off of the plastic container I use to hold Harley's food and cast these really pretty reflections on the kitchen wall. They just struck me as really funky, so I had to take a picture.

Better photos from the last post...

I didn't have these downloaded when I wrote yesterday, so here are some additional pictures to go with the old news.

Dad got his vicar's collar and a beautiful cross necklace from the folks at Messiah Lutheran Church. He's really loving his new role and is doing a great job on the study load for his classes.

This picture of Rushmore came out a little better than the one I took with my phone. Dad's photos from this spring are much more dramatic with a clear blue sky behind the monument. Oh well!

This mountain goat was wandering around by the parking area when we arrived. It was a little sad to see how tame he was, since this wasn't a petty zoo or anything. But at least there wasn't someone herding him around and charging to take his picture (a la Peru).

Look! Snow! That's real snow on the ground and blowing in my hair. With any luck this will be the only snow I see all year. My knees are still recovering from the cold and I don't think I'll miss shoveling or scraping my car windows.

What happened to October?

I guess that I will never cease to be amazed at how quickly time passes. On October 1st I took my dinner out to Tybee and ate on the beach. It was such a perfect autumn day: warm sun, cool breeze, soft sand. I picked out a few neat shells, watched the minnows dart in and out of the waves and spent some time cleaning out the cobwebs in my head.

The beach has always been one of my favorite places to go and think. I'm sure this will come as no surprise, but I rarely just lounge in the sand. My best thinking, and meditating, is usually done while active, and walking the coast is a very therapeutic way for me to work out the kinks. On this particular day, I spent a lot of time thinking about how much my life has changed over the past year...and how much it is still the same. Earlier this year I spent several months feeling like my whole world had been torn apart and shaken to bits. I had a hard time feeling like myself, or even feeling like I knew what it meant to feel like myself. Lately, I have begun to realize that I am still me, I just have a few more experiences to tally up. I don't feel nearly as fragile or tender, like another emotional blow will break me to pieces.

On October 3rd I got to spend a few brief hours with Brian then went to Brunswick to watch Dad get installed as a Vicar in his church. I'm so proud of all the hard work he has put in so far and know that he is going to make a wonderful Pastor.

October 5th was Brian's deployment date. I got to talk to him while I was driving to Dad's, and he was kind enough to humor me by leaving a voicemail that I can listen to over and over during the next 12 months. I was actually doing okay with the whole thing until he mentioned that it may be a few weeks before he was settled in at his base and could email me. I didn't like the idea of "no news is good news" when the only way that I have to get news is from him! I didn't have to fret too much, though, because I got my first email from him on Tuesday, so I can start breathing again.

From October 6 through 10 I was in Rapid City, SD for the ACCE LIFE Conference. I had an awesome time and loved networking with so many other financial educators. I didn't get the weather memo before I left, so I wasn't completely prepared for the temperature dropping to the teens and snow. But it was still a great trip. We had a group outing to see Mount Rushmore and dinner at Prairie Berry Winery and I even sang a little karaoke at Murphy's. The only real complaint I had (besides constantly delayed flights) was that I was fighting a losing battle against a cold/flu/bug for the whole conference. I finally lost the battle on the flight home and have had a fever off and on since Saturday. Yuck.

Mystery Solved!

Boy, you really can find anything on the internet! My beautiful backyard visitor is Lycoris Radiata, commonly called the Red Spider Lily. Seems like I have had a bunch of spider visitors lately... I'm afraid to try digging up the bulb to transplant it, so I guess I'll leave it alone and see if it blooms again next year.

Happy Autumn!

Wow, the first day of Fall is already here. It's a balmy 88 degrees here in Savannah, and it looks like potential thunderstorms are brewing in the clouds.

So what, you may ask, have I been up to since Labor Day? Well, I admired this beautiful flower that bloomed out of nowhere in my little back yard. I haven't a clue as to what it is, so if you know, please enlighten me!

I've been out a few times with some of the girls from work. We stopped by the rooftop bar at the Bohemian Hotel on Bay Street for drinks (chocolate martini: yum!) one afternoon, then hit Fannie's out on Tybee another night (mudslide: yum!). It's great to be out and socializing more, but it did make me miss my girlfriends back up north! This ginormous cargo ship came into port while we were sipping. It's amazing the thing can stay afloat!

I finally finished the laptop cover that I started back in January! It's a felted wool sleeve lined in cotton with a bright yellow zipper (which you can barely see on the left side). I've been playing around with the knitting machine and wool felt appliques and have to say I really like the results!

Last night I bumped into this lovely Black Widow...in my kitchen! She was starting to spin a web across my back door and I almost walked right into it! After taking her mug shot, I relocated her to the other side of the back fence. I know they are toxic, but I can't bring myself to kill something that eats mosquitoes!

The Savannah Jazz Festival is going on this week, but I haven't had a chance to look at the schedule yet. I think there is a show in Forsyth either Saturday or Sunday, so maybe I'll be able to catch it.

That's all the little, day-to-day details. Now on to the real news. After much hinting and poking, um, I mean, encouragement from various friends, I took a stab at online dating with eHarmony. (Pause for giggling) I really wasn't expecting, or hoping, for much more than some interesting dinner conversations and maybe the chance to make some new friends. So I was just as surprised as anyone when I actually felt that "click" with the third guy I met.

That, in and of itself, was not as surprising as the fact that he's in the Army. Even people who just met me said that I didn't seem like the Army type. But I figured that dating self-absorbed, creative-types hasn't worked out so well for me in the past, so why not try something different? After just the third date I was promoted to girlfriend status and, by promoting him to boyfriend status, gave myself the awkward job of breaking it off with the two other guys I had been seeing (a small price to pay, really).

Unlike most of my past relationships, where I've known the guy for weeks or months before moving on to dating, Brian and I decided that we're both up for the long run and just jumped right in. Again, also not like me, but I'm OK with that. So things are going great and I'm walking around with that goofy "I've just fallen" look on my face. Couldn't be happier. Except...

You knew there had to be an "except" in there somewhere, right? Well, it seems that I haven't quite used up all my bad fortune from last year. See, just a mere five days after the "can I call you my girlfriend?" conversation came the "I just got my orders to go back to Iraq for 12 months" conversation. Yup. Oh, and he leaves in less than two weeks.

So, I could curl up in a pathetic little ball and bemoan my crappy luck. But I opted for looking at the glass as half full: I'm dating an amazing man and get to make him some really kick-ass care packages over the next year! Sure, it sucks that we will have to go through the first year of our relationship with him stuck in a desert, but things could be much worse. We'll just make the best of the situation and spend lots of time emailing.

However, I do reserve the right to curl up in a ball at any point, should the need arise.

Non-Laboring Day

Dad and Joy spent the weekend in Savannah with me and we had a GREAT time! I finally got out to visit Fort Pulaski, a Civil War era brick-and-mortar National Park. It was a beautiful day (clear, bright, warm and with enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away) and the park is really well maintained. I have to admit that the Civil War is not my favorite history subject, but I think I could easily get into reading about it!

My friend Jessie works at the fort on restoration and the cannon squad. I helped hem up and take in her costume, as she is much smaller than most of the other re-enacters. I didn't get to see her in action, but watching this other petite ranger if full Confederate garb gave me an idea of how the whole costume comes together. We wrapped up the outing with a late lunch at Huck-a-Poo's out on Tybee.

One of the best parts of my Labor Day weekend was getting to finally meet the rest of the Stiles family! I'd heard so much about Jenny and Christian that it didn't feel like I'd never met them before. It's such a blessing to have great friends that you stay close to, even though there are years between visits.

Since they are expecting another baby boy in December, I whipped up a cute Teddy Bear themed quilt. But I couldn't let Christian go home empty-handed: he got an actual teddy bear! The bear was almost as tall as him, and he tucked the teddy in to sleep on the couch with his brother's blanket, which was pretty cute. But the saccharine levels overloaded when he crawled under the blanket himself and pretended to sleep in the teddy's arms!

New Cute!

After some serious consideration, and more than a little number crunching, I decided to go ahead and buy my first-ever NEW car: a 2009 Honda Fit.

I had actually looked at getting a fit back when I bought my Civic, but the dealer was back-ordered. Part of me would have been perfectly happy to take the insurance settlement and buy a reasonably used older car. However, the Cash for Clunkers program effectively dried out the supply of $5000 to $7000 used cars! I wasn't about to get anything for under $5000 (mainly for safety reasons, but also because I know I'd end up spending a lot on upcoming repairs).

When I looked for gently used cars (2 or 3 years old) I found that many of the Hondas in this age group were selling for just about $1000 less than a brand new car. Now how could I rationalize buying a 3 year old car with 40,000+ miles when for just a grand more I could get a brand new one?

The answer is, I couldn't. So I find this wonderful little base-model Fit at Southern Motors Honda. The staff were friendly, helpful and not at all pushy. And, lucky for me, they had the only Fit in town with a manual transmission! (It doesn't hurt that I liked the color, too) I have really enjoyed driving my new car this past week and will eventually get over the fact of having car payments again... I'm still trying to figure out what to name her. She's much cuter than my last car (which was dubbed "So Cute") but I haven't found just the right name yet. Any ideas?