Home to the Trenches.

Picked up my keys and saw what I was teaching.

Grade 8 American History. Thank goodness.

Got home late yesterday afternoon from Utah. Made it all the way to Ick Santa Clarita before having a problem. Won't go into the details except to say they're "improving" the highway and eliminated my usual offramp into the San Fernando Valley. For about 20 minutes I felt like Charlie on the MTA. But, it worked out and I was able to find my way to the Joann in Porter Ranch where the plastic project holders I needed to finish my storage unit were on sale, 40% off. Now, that's the way to end a vacation.

It was a great trip. Too much retail therapy (especially on top of Dodger's vet bills) but I don't care. I found a lot of great scrapbook paper for my son's books. Now that all the specialty shops in my county have closed all I have is Michael's, and we don't - shall I say - have the same "vision". Didn't get as much fabric as I have in the past, which is good because I'll never use all I have now and have no space to store more.

I did buy this at the Cracker Barrel on the way home:

Not a great picture but you get the idea. It's a business card holder, but is doing a fine job os holding papers that I need to type into the computer.

Kim's doing a "finish things up" promotion and so I will post these, although I don't think it's what she had in mind:
I hauled these up to Eden with me for framing. I love the way they turned out and can't wait to hang them in my "new" nest.

My stay in Eden was perfect. I drove up craving solitude and pretty much just tucked into the condo where I stitched a couple of days, sewed one day, read, worked crossword puzzles, napped. One day I watched the entire season of Firefly (plus Serenity). I also watched Coraline and Knowing. I was there for nine days and spent seven of them as described. Other than the movies and about ten minutes cumulative of news, the TV was off. No TV, no phones. Just blissful quiet.

We have a little man-made stream outside the family room that makes lovely music.


Saturday was the first scheduled day of the Ogden Valley Balloon Festival. Unfortunately, it had rained during the night so they canceled the launch Saturday morning. The rain eventually cleared up, but by then the wind was up so no balloons Saturday. Cool thing about storms in Eden - you are in the cloud. Can be pretty awesome sometimes, but this time was just drizzly and very wet. I'm sure the pilots were worried about lightening, too.


Sunday morning, though, was perfect and I could watch from the balcony. In years past they have launched and flown up the valley toward that divide (the one behind the clouds in the picture above). But last year the people who live at that end of the valley complained (go figure) so they just kind of hovered about the launch field, then flew the other direction. That really is more beautiful to watch because Snowbasin is in the background and they fly over the lake. But I was too lazy to get my shoes on, get in my car and drive around to where I could see that. A really good place to watch will be the deck of our house if (when! when!) we get it built.

I actually laughed out loud when I saw this one:

Want a better view?
Cracked me up. First year I've seen this guy.

Trip home was relatively uneventful. Stayed the night in St. George and somebody banged on my locked motel room door a couple of times. I figured it was kids. Once I calmed down from the surprise it was fine.

Got home to Mr. Innocent here.


Remember the tear in the carpet. We kept his bed over it so that he - we thought - would forget about eating the delicious padding. DH has caught him more than once dragging his bed off the wound and digging up more padding to chew on.

Brat.

My room is almost done. This is the last space that I will work on:


One more coat of green and then I can start the actual organizing in time for school to start Monday. DS2 has already been paid to do the space over the cabinets. At 6'6", he has the reach to do this that I don't, especially since I'm enjoying not being in pain from ladder climbing.