Can it be that we have been in our lovely new manufactured home almost a year already?? It doesn't seem possible, but it's true. It also doesn't seem possible that I FINALLY got around to trying out my "new" (bought several months ago) digital camera today and FINALLY taking a few new pics of the outside of our home. I don't know why it took me so long to try out the camera (a Nikon Coolpix) but it is a lot more user-friendly than I'd feared; pretty much point and shoot. It has a lot of different optional "modes" to switch to, depending on indoor/outdoor, time of day, subject matter, close or far, etc. But for now, the default auto mode seems to work great! I also took some pics of many of my latest crochet projects, in preparation for soon adding the looooong-overdue crochet page #3 to my site. I didn't take a pic yet of the gorgeous 56-square peach and green "F and F" (friends and family) ghan that has 16 8" squares crocheted by me and the other 40 by Dianne, her mom Margaret, her 3 daughters and one of her youngest's April's friends (6 to 8 squares each). I couldn't get it laid out in a way to really get the whole thing (or even most of it) in the pic to do it justice, so maybe I will have Rex hold it up today or tomorrow. But anyway, I am really pleased with the little camera! And now I am going to attempt to get the new pics (which also feature my sweet '88 Mercedes, "Bianca") posted below, after I read the "help" section here on Blogspot to remember how to do it!
OK, that was easy enough! I also want to take some pics of the inside of our home to post here in the near future. But I need to do some picking up and straightening up first, and Rex has to get the rug shampooer rented; it's badly needed after 11+ months of 500+ pounds of large lovable dawgs sharing the place with us. I also did get a couple of pics of Archie (our precious 170-pounder) taken today. I may as well post them below. The other dawgs were laying behind something or otherwise not accessible to get a good shot, so may have to wait till they're outside.
I also will need to get some pics of our current brood of eight sweet guinea pigs. I still can't believe we lost little Ozzie sometime on Tuesday. I was home all day preparing for my routine colonoscopy the next day (which, thankfully, came out fine) and the last I checked on the piggies, he seemed perfectly OK. Rex found him the next morning. He was a pretty little shorthair tortoiseshell who came to us about 20 months ago with his cagemate, a beautiful Peruvian (longhaired) tortoiseshell, Harry. Several months ago we added Joey, a wonderful solid black Peruvian, to their cage, and they all got along well. Ozzie was one of our most docile piggies and liked to be held and petted. We check all the piggies regularly since we've lost four others - Harvey (a lovable, athletic tan Abyssinian), Salina and Speedy (both black shorthair) and Rusty (rust-color shorthair) since our original guy, Popeye, in '05 (we thankfully had him almost 5 years). I wish the little critters lived longer. They are such nice little animals. We hope to get to the bottom of why this has happened the last couple years. We take good care of the piggies and I don't know of anything we are doing wrong.On the positive side, another thing that is hard to believe, after all the years of temp jobs, layoffs, and several wrong jobs I never should have taken in the first place (would love to turn back the clock and make a different decision on at least four...), I will be at my present job TWO YEARS next week - and I had a very good annual review two weeks ago. There have been some rough periods even at this job, and I still feel I will again seek a higher-paying job in Seattle or Tacoma down the road. But I'm glad things have settled down for now, so that I can further regain some appearance of stability, as opposed to the job hopper my present resume still makes me appear (despite some of that being beyond my control).
I haven't been back to TOPS since Feb. and doubt at this point I will return. I also doubt that I will have any "after" pics to post here this year. That could change, but I know that the longer I wait to get restarted eating less, the harder it will be. As to the wonderful world of crocheting, today I hope to finish assembling my sumptuous diagonal brick stitch ghan in "sand and sea" colors of Bernat Satin. I had to set it aside for a couple weeks, having run out of three colors of the Satin. Then I'll have to decide what edging to add, weave in the rest of the ends, photograph it and find a prominent place to show it off - likely in our living room. Am also working on three doilies - "Danube Centerpiece" (nine motifs in dark rose, cream and pink, with sage trim), another beaded doily to use up the rest of my jewel-toned beads (Welcoming Oval in sage; the pattern doesn't call for beads but I figured out a design to exactly use up what I have left) and "Heavenly Delight" to use the rest of the dark rose and pink. At least two more ghans planned next, and at long last, Barbie gowns! I got a little carried away buying a few more Barbies off eBay, along with panties and shoes (we can't have Barbie in a fancy gown with no underpants or shoes, now can we?). It will take quite some time making clothes for the 18 or so I have now! Well, that's all that's fit to print for this go-round! I'll likely wait to post again till Dianne and I take our little 3-day mini-vacation to Long Beach, Washington in three weeks.
