measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mid-October As I drove to work this morning, I noticed that the trees are really starting to brighten up. The drive up Rt. 128 is quite beautiful in the mornings now-- large clusters of trees changing colors from the summertime drought-muted greens to variated shades of yellow, orange, browns, and reds. Bright, beautiful, flaming reds. Ah, yes... autumn in New England. [erich] and I had planned to do a day trip up to Concord tomorrow-- there's a wonderful cheese shop there, and there's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where we went last year on one of our first day-trip outings together. The trip was to get us into the autumn mood-- go get our carmel apples at one of the local farm stands, maybe a couple pumpkins... that sort of thing. It's supposed to rain-- heavily-- all day tomorrow. So the trip may be out, or perhaps just cut short. Concord is one of those well-to-do Revolutionary War towns that still has that small town New England feel, even though it's so close to Boston and urban sprawl. It's romantic in its coziness and quaint old buildings. It's one of those too cute towns-- one that you know stays that way through the able salaries to keep things renovated and perfectly trimmed. I've been there only a couple of times. Once with Erich, and once during my freshman year of college over Parents' Weekend at BU. My mother and grandparents came to visit me, and we went all over the place finding historical places-- of which there are hundreds within 20 miles of Boston. I'd love to afford to live up there, if it were humanly possible on my salary. But that's one of those pipe dreams that would occur only if Erich or I won the lottery. *sigh* But regardless, I hope we have at least a few hours of somewhat decent weather so we can wander around up there. On Sunday, we're meeting up with Ivanna, her boyfriend Joe, and relatives up in Salem. Ivanna and I haven't seen each other in probably about four years. The last time I recall seeing her was for a brief evening when she and Joe were up for a drum corps show in Malden. I might be off by a time, though. I was still living in Egremont at the time-- she never saw the Beast. She's finally actually following through on the now-running joke of "Joe and I are thinking of coming up to Boston..." Life has usually kicked those plans in the ass, but not this time. :) So we're going to go back to our witchy roots, tromp around Salem, scare everyone who's with us, and have a good time, regardless of the weather. I'm looking forward to it. :) [bar] In my attempt to get LMAO's wrapped up and out of here to prepare myself for [nano], I had to pop by Michael's craft store to buy some embroidery floss. One of the LMAO's I'm involved in is a DMC floss-skein swap-- basically a "pick a few out, replace what you took plus one" sort of deal. All of my embroidery things are still in storage, and I think all of my skeins are wrapped on bobbins anyway, so off to buy brand new ones. My goal? Get two or three skeins, which would cost me a buck or less, and be outta there in five minutes. *cough* One hour later I walk out of Michaels, having spent about thirty dollars because I found what every cross-stitcher knows is an obnoxious addiction-- the brand new nifty pattern that you've never seen before, and know is for such a limited interest audience that you'll never see it again if you don't buy it... now. So I got that. And while I bought that, I might as well get the fabric and threads to do the pattern, right? Oh, and since all of my stuff is on one of the boxes in storage, I need a new hoop. And needles. And a storage box with new bobbins.. and and and... *sigh* to be fair, it is a really cool pattern-- it's a sampler that when finished will be about 12x15 inches, and the entire thing is of the Egyptian Gods, and looks like it should have come out of some tomb or the Book of the Dead. Beautiful antique colors-- tons of them, lots of different stitches, etc. Fantastic piece to finish, mat, and frame for the wall. This is, of course, assuming that I ever finish the blasted thing. Oh, did I mention that I've never stitched on linen straightweave before? I've done 14 and 18 count Aida. This pattern can't be DONE on aida due to some of the stitches used. And the only two sizes of straightweave cloth were 28 and 32. So I'm going to go blind trying to find the holes for my needle, I think. *sigh* So I have yet another pattern to do. I should finish my dragon, though. The last time I was working on it, I had the castle done, the wings mostly done, and I was working on the neck and head. The rocks and his tail aren't even started yet. And how ironic is it, as I look for a picture of the dragon... it's by the same designer as the new Egyptian one I bought. *snort* Figures. No wonder-- she seems to love mixed threads. :) Ah well... someday I'll get them done. Really. Stop giving me that look. ~ Mel. 10:38 a.m. - 11 October 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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