Looking forward to a girls weekend in NYC this weekend. Blessed with the fine company of stringmonkey , attack_laurel  and terrshee  we will have a fun time looking at three floors of 16th and 17th cent embroideries, other exhibits in the Met, and get into some good food. I'll miss my Alan and the pup, but at least he won't be burdened by me taking my time at an exhibit that he has no interest in. I hear there is also a cool exhibit at the Met of items from ancient Babylonia. Frankly I'd also just like to see more of the massive Met.

I've also got two days off capping the weekend making it four days total, which gives me tomorrow to run errands and play with the pup, and Monday to recover. I should also really wash my fabric for my costume for Bob's party, and get started on construction.

Sadly my brain is full of snot, so not I'm not very interesting. Oddly enough, though my head is stuffed including my ears, my sense of smell is heightened. The smell of mulch going into and leaving work was almost overwhelming. I could smell perfume when no one was around, and the chair my boss was sitting in after she left the room. And man is the pup smelling houndy.ugh. I'd like to go back to normal soon please. I do not want a heightened sense of smell on the train or subway in New York.

Whew, did our 'Bug have a busy exciting weekend...

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Tomorrow we are back to our "normal" routine, and have the second class of basic dog training. I think I'll pack her Gentle Leader just in case she needs settling.

I'm very glad that things went as smoothly as they did. No one is perfect, but when given enough space and adaptation time, she did really well. She got along fine with most dogs she met, and also all the people. Everyone said Ladybug was cute and liked to pet her when her curious nose would let her stay still long enough to allow it. I'm very thankful to the Morgan's, the denizens of Two Dog Hill, and all in attendance for their willingness to work with us and their patience. Thanks also to attack_laurel  and her Bob for agreeing to be our back-up plan in case the girls didn't get along. We have a mostly good dog, and very many wonderful friends.

Had a fun Christmas and Christmas weekend. Too much fun, so bulletted list it is:

• Christmas Eve dinner with Roland and Theo at Timpano's, and some tack surfing on the drive home.
• Sleeping in Christmas Day, opening presents, yummy breakfast, watching DVDs and a nice walk to view neighborhood lights
• Getting on the road much later than anticipated heading south
• Wonderful dinner with Tom, Courtney, Tracie and Chris, tasty lasagna, cute pets, oud playing, up too late chatting
• Made it to Willard's guest house around 3am.
• Slept in, made it over to hang out with family, blondemuse , nieces and friends in Conover, delicious adult dinner out at the Artist's Cafe in Newton (amazing food!) and home to watch Hot Fuzz, (far more entertaining than I imagined!)
• Got to play with Kaylee, Asia and Pounce on Friday, and Layla, Paris and Darby the rest of the weekend.
• Slept in again, went warehouse browsing with Clint and Mer, and an attempt to find Brandy Extract turned into buying Port for the sauce, and the guys.
• Helped with Carl and Mer's bold dinner attempt of yummy steaks with Port-cream sauce, vegetables (asparagus and brussel sprouts with bacon, butter, cheese, and pine nuts), and creme brule for dessert. (yay, fire!)
• Finished the visit with a breakfast at IHOP, found the perfect sofa for Courtney, eventually retrieved it and realized that Alan and I had completely made up a chair that wasn't there, and delivered sofa to its new home.
• Had some of the best vegetable beef soup evar, and more time chatting and hanging out with Tom and Courtney.
• On the road much later than planned, but perfect timing for a nice dinner at Kayhill's in South Hill, before getting home around midnight.
• Home to snuggly bed!

Had fun finishing taking pictures of the neighborhood lights last night, and uploading them to Flickr:


And took a few outside pictures of Willard's (for anyone who's heard me mention his place) and the cozy Guest Nest we were fortunate to stay in.

And soon we are off to a fun New Year's Eve party at Two Dog Hill. Hooray!

Quick update.

As attack_laurel posted, we had an excellent trip, but I am exhausted from the whole experience. The MFA was again, a blast. I will post the notes I took with links to the accession items on the MFA site when I get the chance. Those pink and green garters gave me tremors they were so cool. Definitely sprang as the meeting line is telling, if extremely subtle. The silk used is very fine, and the silver and gold thread was also inspiring. AND they had the coolest tassels on the ends. The knit garters are extremely cool, as were the knit jackets, etc. Drool. I proved that I am a terribly thorough shopper, much to the regret of my credit card and companions. Four days of embroidery. whoosh. I accomplished a rose, a columbine, and a small strawberry flower. I'll have to post pictures later, since they are still sitting on the camera at home.

Speaking of home, our bathroom is mostly done. I met the painter this morning (at 7:45am, ugghhhh) and gave him last minute directions before hopping in the car to be early for work, only to sit in rainy day traffic. sigh. Our bathroom looks awesome so far, and for a change, I am really looking forward to soaking in that tub. Need to find a mirror, robe hook and shower curtain sooner than I thought. Wowzer.

Alan very kindly dropped us off at the airport and picked us up last night, and I was so happy to see him. I had excellent companions for the trip, no one strangled me, our little rental car was a trooper, I ate some tasty seafood while closer to the ocean, I spread the Plimoth embroidery gospel to more of my Mother-in-Law's friends at her retirement village, and got to ooh and ahh over some fabulous show and tell works by amazing ladies. Alas I have seen the wisdom of others and I think I will continue to heed the warning to avoid Logan airport if possible in the future.

Today Barney arrived to start the demolition on our master bath before it is made into pretty pretty remodeledness.
knock knock knock knock bang smash jigga jigga riiiippppppp..... 
Barney has no idea how much I'd rather be helping him, but the bathroom is small, I'd just make a mess, my back and arms really don't need the abuse, I'm finally on antibiotics for this bleck I've been fighting/succumbing to, I have to work, and well, he's the professional. It was fun to see parts of our bathroom troop out the front door piece by piece as I was checking in online and tracking down the Rx from the back-up doctor and the pharmacy to see where it was. sigh.

This evening we fly out to Boston (staying in Braintree) for two nights, and then on to Plimoth Plantation for more embroidery and some visiting with my MIL. I've got a small stack of print pictures of our sailing expedition to pass onto her, which I know she'll appreciate. (Reminds me, I still need to make a disc of pictures from Jan and March for my Mom.) Hopefully this will be a nice relaxing, fun, and invigorating break and I'll come back a little sore but rested. That's my plan anyways. Can't wait to see our list of items in the MFA. Me, my camera and my back-up batteries and memory-card, and notebook are totally ready. Must contain drool. I really hope those pink, green and gold garters are sprang, but they could be a simple braided pattern. We'll see!

I am packed and ready to go. I did most of my packing last night, and have clothes, activity bag (knitting, embroidery, reading, camera), directions to places, and toiletries. Oh, and my wallet in case I forgot anything. One of the other small pluses to having our bathroom remodel starting a few days early is that it will go on for 3 days when I'm not home to have to get up early, and use the hall bath, etc. If I'm really lucky (and Barney's really good) it will all be complete to my satisfaction (aside from the back-ordered light) before Sapphire. I won't count on it, but that would be awesome.

Sailing monkeys haz returned home.
Sailing monkeys are sunburned in spots; some more, some less.
Sailing monkeys had uber fun time sailing.
Sailing monkeys haz lots of funneez picshures of sailing.
Sailing monkeys ate lots of yummilicious foodz.
Sailing monkeys bought lots of pretty pottery at Glades Pottery private opening.
Sailing monkeys had delayed flight home due to weatherz, so not in bed before midnight.

This sailing monkey is sore, burnt and tired.

Sleep sailing monkeys, sleep.

It is cold and raining outside.
In 20 hours we'll be down in sunny Florida.
We could use some sun and relaxation.

Last night we met with a bathroom remodel estimator and signed a contract to have our master bath finally redone. I got to punch a hole in the wall to determine that it was an empty wall built out to fit the shower pan. So, in its place we'll have a nice soaker tub with a removable shower head to a hand-held sprayer. And the tub should be easier to clean than this icky shower pan and the sliding glass doors. So excited and looking forward to having a clean new bathroom with non-broken floor tile, nicer fixtures, easier to clean, etc. Sadly poor Alan was stuck at work a little late, so I got to hang out with the estimator, showing her around, and picking out choices for our redo. Luckily Alan liked all of my choices, so verified that we're still on the same page aesthetically, and then we got to work on a few final details together.

This does mean that house-guests are discouraged during the second half of May as we'll only have the hall bath as our full bath. But we also got a quote for remodeling that, at a later date, which I'm also looking forward to. The one qualification was that I'd remove the special wallpaper myself. Must not start wallpaper removal until after the master bath is done and we have financing in place for more home improvements.