When in Rome (or Chinatown)

ShLast night we had dinner at Joe's Shanghai.  It was good. We  had the soup dumplings -- crab and pork and Shanghai  Fried flat noodles. Which were not fried or flat!

I made it all the way through with chopsticks and a spoon.  Or did I? Judging from the front of my shirt...

New York, New York

In our room in Chinatown. I see Dim Sum in our future!

The AirTrian was easy and fast from Newark. As we came out of Penn Station, there was the Affinia Hotel where we stayed last time. We went over there and caught a cab (the doorman helped us😎)

Now do we have the energy to go to dinner?

1st Sports Pub

We haven't even left Seattle  but this restaurant is located right next to our gate AND the bathrooms!  And they hsve great music playing lots of local  bands. Carrie called them "deep cuts" aka not just the most popular songs.

I so LOVE TSA Pre check. I was surprised at how long the lines were at 6 am.

A big thank you to Mike for driving us to the airport.

Yeah ending with Springsteen! I can hear him and Little Steven together on one mic.

Carrie just commented that this was our first trip that wasn't a crochet trip!  WHAT?!?

25 minute delay for our flight.  More time to drink coffee!

Itinerary -- Need to Pack!

This is the sign on my computer at work!  I think I have all of the stuff I need to pack -- I am sure too much!  I have contacted my cousin who is studying at Trinity College in Dublin, sent all the details of the trip to our family.

Made copies of my passport -- Thank You Carrie, I had missed that in our instructions!  Our flight leaves SeaTac at 8:15 tomorrow am.  I think we have met just about everyone who will be on the tour with us.  They all sound like fun people.

Test photo

Photo of one of the afghans for Project Linus

New Crochet Adventure

I am setting up my blog to post entries while visiting New York and Ireland.

Carrie and I will be taking a crochet tour through crafttours.com. If you would like to follow our adventures, you should be able to subscribe to the blog.

Beginning Crochet | King County Library System | BiblioCommons

Beginning Crochet | King County Library System | BiblioCommons

testing

testing kcls blogspot.

This weekend I finished up 5 projects!  One Linus Project Blanket, one Purrfect Pals cat blanket and 3 versions of the dishcloth I used for teaching the class from last years Workplace Giving Auction. One nice thing about teaching a class, it makes me dabble in writing patterns.  Writing a dishcloth pattern is pretty risk free!

The yarn for the 2 blankets are from the bags of yarn Marlene gave me.

New Year New Entry

I am no different then others, I find myself looking forward to the new year and thinking about what I can do to make my life experience different in the coming year.

Of course, I think if the usual bad habits I have that I wish I did not. Unfortunately, we know those goals rarely last past week 2 of January. (Just long enough to have all my friends NOT want to eat or drink to celebrate my birthday -- poor me!)

I realized that I did not attend any photography group events last year. I did take lots of photographs (although very few have been posted) but I did them on more spur of the moment events rather then doing the planning to do it with the photography group.

I have made lots of cat blankets for Purrfect Pals. I made some scarves for the Warm for Winter project but did not ever get them sent to the group -- next year! I also participated in a project organized by the The Burien Yarn Stash store to make scarves for women going through breast cancer treatment. Their most current email talked about creating purple or lavender hats for newborns to send home with new babies to remind parents about the dangers of Shaken Baby Syndrome. Another great project to support.

So what about 2011. I am the Guild chair for the Crochet Guild Seattle. I have been thinking about what I would like to do with this group. I am trying to think of 5 minute info bites about the crochet world or book reviews at our meetings. I don't want to make our meetings a chore but at the same time I want the time the women spend with us valuable.

While I was at a conference for work in Dallas, Texas earlier this year, I heard an author speak about his book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Anchor. He had some simple tips for adding happiness in your life and in the lives of others (thus adding more to your life).

One tip he had was the 20 second rule. If it will take 20 seconds to get something, you will not do it. So if you want to break a habit put a barrier of 5 to 20 seconds for you to do it. My challenge it playing games on my cell phone. If my phone is next to my chair, I can find myself playing games for hours while watching TV. I believe playing games on those small machines harm my hands and arms more than working on the computer or crocheting. The challenge is that I miss text messages if the phone is not near... However, I can certainly move and/or donate my OLD phones so they are not right there :)

If you want to DO something take that barrier away.

The other tip I plan to do (he has 7) is to email a thank you to someone every day. It starts your day out with a good feeling for realizing yet another person in your life and it will improve that person's day too!

Now, off to do something away from the computer. Really! I'm not going to play a game on the computer!