Fitness Plan Challenge

I've got to do something here. The menopause pounds, the quitting smoking pounds and the need to help justify the hours spend on the internet which has comtributed to the lack of physical activity.....need I say more.   Face it, cross stitching does not exactly keep one in shape.  I log in everyday to check email, update my website, check blog posts, look at ebay sales, window shop at cross stitch sites and why not obligate myself to log in a record my treadmill progress?  I need to get my incentive somewhere so if it is because others are watching is what it takes, here goes.   Watch carefully for if I faulter........I just might delete this section. For now, I will list the date, the distance and the time I walk. I do not plan to walk everyday but plan to walk more days than not. If anyone wants to join in, please just add a comment to this post.   I will add your name, date, time and distance on the sidebar with mine.  As Bugs Bunny would do, let hope I don't end up in Pismo Beach.   Remembering that each journey starts with a single step here goes.

10/30 30 minutes 1.55 miles

Great Weekend

The view on the interstate - foilage was much prettier than it looks

The sky was so pretty. So BLUE it almost hurt the eyes!

The upside of the Walt Whitman Bridge

The city in the distance from the Walt Whitman.   Click on the pic and you can

see IKEA through the hand rails.   A favorite store!

The city from the Schukyll Expressway

On my way home, Kelly Drive near Hunting Park

There is a statue of a man on a horse in the center of the shot.

Not sure how I managed to get this centered to perfectly.   It is a statue of what appears to be Athen's wrestler.  The Schullkyll is in the background.   As always they were sculling and you can see them to the right.

Cool stone trusses for the train bridge.   I almost want to hold my breath

for fear four cars wide won't fit at the same time.

Nice view as I get on the Vine Street Expressway

The Vine Street Expressway

I meant to get around to posting about my great weekend.    I went to spend the day with my daughter in Philly.   We always have a good time and we laugh a lot and get a little crafting in too.   As I prepared to pack the car with my WIP's and my sewing machine and a few fat quarters to boot, I thought about how a few short years ago - well maybe 10 - I would have froze in terror at the thought of riding to the city, I would have had the white knuckle grip on the steering wheel, let alone driving it and by myself!  Cells phones and GPS have taken away much of the fear of driving alone.   I can't believe how far I have come from the little country bumpkin where there are literally no cars down the main street after 10 pm and for me who is accustomed to the unmonitored table of fresh produce that sits at the side of the road with the old coffee can for your money in it each summer to THE CITY!  I am grateful for what I have learned from my children! So I took my camera with me and randomly shot photos along the way.  There was no aiming; I was just pointing and clicking.  I of course got the shots of my forehead and the headliner of the car as well at the shots of my lap and the shots of my floormats but I got some good ones too.    First the leaves along my ride up the interstate.   The photo does not do the brilliant colors justice.   Now, over the river and into the city.  The shots I took of Citizen's Bank Park (where the Phillies play) were not so good so I deleted them.   But I got the skyline from the Schulkyll.  I also got bumper to bumper traffic from South Street on.     I had to stop taking pictures because the batteries in the camera  were so low I had to let it sit on the passenger seat to kind of get its energy up.   And I thought for  fleeting moment someone might spy me taking photos and turn me into Homeland Security because no one but a terrorist would be randomly taking photos while driving on the expressway.   I got some photos on the way home along Kelly Drive.   How did I manage to get these two?    And then there is the Vine Street Express Way...not a bad ride this time.   The Ben Franklin Bridge....this is one of the coolest bridges.    Again, pangs of fear that I may be construed as a terrorist.  This bridge is a beautiful specimen.   The train runs along the sides.  It is really pretty at night with the lighting they have.  

The Ben Franklin Bridge - the trains run right next to the car lanes.  

Cool view for both the car passenger and the train passenger.

The Ben Franklin Bridge

A few years ago they discovered subway stations that were built in the uprights but apparently closed or never used.    WOW! 

Triple A Ball Park, Camden NJ

It was a different drive taking a camera.   Here is a  ball park where the Triple A team the Riversharks play.  This is a cool view when there is a night game!  You can see uprights for the Walt in the background.    All photos should be clickable to enlarge.   Hope all enjoy my photo journal as much as I did during the experience. 

Oh yeah, and we crafted in between my commute to and from.

PS 11 p.m. @#$^^$@$!!!! Why is uploading photos sometimes impossible!!!  And of course I deleted them off my camera.   I will try again tomorrow by emailing them to myself and uploading from my laptop!

PS Duh! Why not just download them on to my Cruzer stick and then upload. Works like a charm!  I need to do a little rearranging but at least I got them uploaded and labeled!

I need to make a decision

It is the economy? maybe......  I put out a Pay It Forward and have not gotten any interest.    I got me wondering if it is economics.   I listed I would name winners this weekend and so far no takers.   I don't want to not do my obligation (as a PIF winner!!) and not continue with the pay it forward concept but I think I may be pulling my offer until the spring.   I guess there is not a timeline for me to actually offer the PIF other than within 365 days.  Yeah, that's what I am doing.  Moving out for 6 months.   I have a Blogoversary coming up and that will generate more traffic and perhaps followers so check out my PIF in April 2010!  What I have bought so far certainly won't spoil.   lol!  This whole economic depression hit just as the last of the kids moved out so while $$'s are tight the utilities and food bill are lower.  That's not to say I am rolling around on a bed of money either.  We have tightened our belts like everyone.     Those 30 minutes showers kids take!  Putting a shirt in the dryer for 10 minutes to get the wrinkles out!  Not to mention their ravenous appetites.    I actually have a half quart of milk that will spoil vs. the gallon a day consumed previously.  If you have kids, you know what I mean.

So that's it.   I made the decision.  Stay tuned for a Pay It Forward in April 2010.  Hmmm, that may even give my time to stitch a little something something to include.......may give me time. 

The Crafting Moo

Here's another nice give-a-way!  See the Crafting Moo.

Comment Moderation

I am so hopelessly computer illiterate!  I turned on the little "Comment Moderation" thingie that means I have to approve comments before they are posted which is a good thing.   Problem is I didn't know I did it or how or when.    See, that is the computer illiterate part......the part that appartently goes on these happy clicking binges and doesn't know what she has turned off or on.   Anyway, I am glad I did it and had wondered how to do it when I got the message on ther posted......comments will be reviewed by the moderator before posting......

A good evening

hard to imagine if no stitching was involved.....met my brother and road together to pick up our sister and we all went to dinner to celebrate his birthday.   No matter where we went because it could have been a hot dog stand.   The point is we were together.   We laughed until we cried, seriously.  After dinner we went to the movies.   We saw "Where the wild things are" and all I can say is....it was goofy.   I thought it was a kids movie along the lines of Bridge to Taribithia or similar.  Maybe it was a kids movie but......I had the feeling it might make more sense if you were high......or that in years to come we will find out that it has some sort of counter culture following with hidden meanings.  Remember Peter Paul and Mary and that majic dragon?   There was a message to the movie but it was still goofy.  No matter, we still laughed and ejnoyed each others company and had a great evening. 

I'm off to work

Yes it is a Saturday and I am (supposed) to be a M-F/9 to 5er.   Now that's a hoot.   Anyway, off to work today is all on me.   The past couple of months I have reigned in the extra hours but alas the work backs up.  Somedays I feel like a ball in a pinball machine bouncing about and not really doing a heck of a lot.  This week has been a series of those days.   I figure I can get three days worth of work done on a Saturday morning because I will be there only one there!!!    That pile of undone items prays on me  and starts to seep into my senses and gets me down.   So before I start to freak out about it, in I will go.   This is a triple play though for me.......I need to take my Jeannette Douglas Pineapple stitches to the

framer.   This is not the best picture but it is what I have as my desktop background on my laptop.   I completed it almost two years ago, rolled it in tissue paper and put is with the other completed but not finished pieces.  I had it with me yesterday and intended to stop in on my lunch hour but stuff came up.   It wasn't a big deal to delay my trip one more day after 22 months!   I will also be doing some stash enhancement today.   Criss Cross Row, internet shop, is having a sidewalk sale at a local yarn shop.  Unfortunately Martha C. who ran that shop has decided it is time to close.  This was my motivation a few weeks back to sort and organize my stash and make my spreadsheet of fabrics needed.     The past few years for Martha C. have been filled with her husband's illness and passing.   If not from Criss Cross Row, you may know her from The (successful) Academy of Needlework event she held in Newark DE a couple of years back.   My guild, Delaware Valley Historical Sampler, which she is one of the founders, keeps the members informed on her status.   Anyway, I will be heading there after I leave work to stock up on fabrics, fibers and the like.   I will make sure I pick up items for my Blogoversary give away that is coming up and for the PIF I have posted.  After shopping, an early dinner with my sister and brother for his birthday......then home to stitch away the evening and play and fiddle with my new purchases.    PS.  I have one finish this week that I will post tomorrow and maybe if I am good tonight, I will have two to post tomorrow!!!

Pay it forward

Random acts of kindness are the best.   To do things with no motive or hope for any personal gain is truly selfless. Have you ever done something nice for someone without expecting something in return?  Or, has someone done something for you just because?  Didn't it make you feel warm inside?  That is the premise behind paying it forward. When something good happens to you to share that good fortune and good feeling with someone else is to pay it forward.

In the spirit of PIF'ing, Meari of Meari's Musings offered to Pay It Forward. I thought it sounded like fun, so I commented to her post and said please count me in.....and I was one of her lucky winners.  It is now my turn to Pay It Foward!  It is easy. No sewing involved, and I have have 365 days to send out my Pay It Forwards surprises.

To Pay It Forward here's what you need to do:
1. Send no less than 5 stitching related items per person within the next 365 days.
2. Items can be DMC, other threads, stitching needles, straight pins, buttons, scissors, ribbons, etc. - a combination of items such as 3 threads, 1 pack of straight pins and 1 pack of stitching needles or just 5 threads.
3. The items must be new and not used. Send things you would be happy to receive.
4. If you win, you must be willing to post this PIF on your blog and do the same for at least 2 people.

To be included in my Pay It Forward -
I'm going to draw for three winners. If you are interested in Paying It Forward, please comment on this post.  Feel free to tell your friends too. Remember you have to be willing to reciprocate on your blog. If there are more than three comments, the names will go into a drawing to determine the winners.  I'll announce the PIF receipients Halloween weekend and you can reply at that time with your email address.   Good Luck All!

PS  I am just as excited to do the planning and the shopping.
If you haven't seen the movie, put it in your Netflix que and get out the tissues.

PIF

I wasn't even going to log in this morning.  I thought a better way to spend the next 45 minutes before I start to get ready for work would be to stitch.   But the laptop is sitting here beckoning and alas I have no will power over it. 

I am so happy that after a quick check of emails for verify meetings and dinner dates, I jumped to my blog.   What a pleasant surprise to see some fantastic news today..... that I was picked by Meari on her PIF (Pay it forward) blog post!   How cool.  I can't remember when I won anything.  Maybe an office 50/50 but this is better.  It's stuff!  I will receive 5 stitching related items in the next 365 days.  I will have to check out the rules and see if they all are to be sent at once or spread out over the year.   This is fun and imagine how exciting to come home from work and find a surprise in the mail.

Now it's my turn to give it to three other people!

I'm gonna be drawing for three people to do this for. Please watch for my post with instructions. Remember you have to be willing to reciprocate on your blog.

If you haven't seen the movie, put it in your Netflix que and get out the tissues.

Brrr!

The news is talking FROST!   Boy I wish I were retired and could just snuggle and stitch away the day.  But alas I need to go to work to pay for my (stitching) addiction.  Wishing all a good week and happy stitching.