Another Random Update

What'd you expect with a title called "Random Thoughts of AMW"???  

I feel like my work meeting went pretty well last week.  That meeting was for the other party to gather information to take to another meeting, this week.  So I haven't heard anything from them yet, and that's ok.  Most likely, it will lead to more meetings, and then more meetings.  Not really a fan of meetings, but they are a necessary evil sometimes.  Work itself is pretty stressful as I share a space with someone I don't really care for and don't really respect.  

I've been keeping an eye on the eaglets from Norfolk Botanical Gardens that I've shared about numerous times on this blog.  The quick update  is that the 3 eaglets were removed from the nest, and placed at the Wildlife Center of Virginia.    It was determined that while the dad would continue to try to provide for them, it would soon become too much for him (3 rapidly growing eaglets eat a LOT of fish) and still provide enough to nourish himself.  This solution saves the lives of all three eaglets and dad.  They are being "rehabbed" so to speak to prepare them for release into the wild hopefully in August.  They have set up webcams at their facility and still broadcast at the former webcam site:  www.wvec.com/eaglecam

I "rehabbed" an old T-shirt quilt that a friend had done back in high school, and wasn't crazy about.  She gave me the old quilt and asked me to do *something* with it.  Her birthday was last week, and I was going to give her as a present, but didn't see her.  I'll post pictures of it when I get it to her (since she hasn't seen it yet!).

In other quilt news - I've got a couple more in line to finish the tops, and then I'll make a run to rent the long-arm again.  Don't want to wait too long so I don't forget al the stuff I learned!  Could certainly happen in this over-crowded mind of mine....

And there's one other piece of big exciting news, but I think I'm gonna hold that one close until Favorite Things Friday!  So stay tuned!

AMW

Sheesh...

Has it really been more than a month since I posted here???  Crap!  Why didn't someone poke me?  Oh yeah, that's facebook...

It's been stressful and relaxing this last month.  I've been busy and bored.

But no real excuse for not posting...  I've been reading and keeping up with everyone, but just forgot to post anything.

Maybe it's age?

Anyway -

Took one small weekend trip to one of my favorite places, the Outer Banks!  Went with four other fabulous women, and we went to Endless Possibilities in Manteo, NC for a day of creativeness.  We each weaved a rug:

Our finished rugs!

And I bought a bucket hat made out of men's neckties:

I've since been given a grocery bag full of ties, and will try to make another hat.

The Japan earthquake/tsunami disaster happened while we were on that trip, and I've been following things since then.  The devastation is utterly amazing.  I started seeing calls for quilts at a lot of blogs I was following, so I teamed up with my friend JAB to see about each of making a simple quilt to donate.

We set up a sew date, and were doing so well, we ended up making 4 of them in a weeks time.  (no pictures yet, but will post when I do have them...)

That left us wanting to do more, so we've decided to get together once a month and make a quilt each for the local children's hospital.  Will post more on that later as well...

(See how I'm setting myself up for more posts later???  Clever, huh?  Or lame... whichever....)

JAB was also the one to tell me a bout a local quilt shop that offers a class on how to use their long-arm and then rents it to you by the hour.  Class is done, and let's just say that I'm in LOVE!  Renting it this Friday for some practice time.....  But more on that later (yet ANOTHER segway to a new post!)

As for the stressful stuff, I think I'll leave that for a separate post.  Mostly so I have a subject to post about , but also cause it's a bit of a vent, and that will make it easier to skip over. (Although, really, do we skip over people's vents?  Or secretly welcome them as a way to see what's REALLY going in the real life of some of our blogger friends?, Yeah, that's I what I thought...)

Enough rambling for today.

Thanks to all of you who post regularly so that I have something to read when I'm not posting!

Nothing update

I don't really have anything new to blog about.  But still wanted to post something anyway.  What do you do when you want to blog, but have writer's block?  For me - RANDOMNESS.

I've been looking for a pattern for the black, white, and red fabric I bought.  Most of the fabrics are rather large print, so I needed a pattern that would highlight them.  Thumbing through April/May 2011 issue of Quilt magazine, lo and behold, there was a Black, White & Red all over pattern.  I like it, but will probably adapt it a bit to better suit my fabrics.

Coming up this weekend is the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show just a couple short miles from my house.   People come from all over the county to go to this show, and I can get there is 3 simple turns.  Yep, I'll be there all weekend.  More on that later in the week...

It's "President's Day" here, so that means a day off for me.  I love President's Day holiday because it's always near my birthday (which was Sunday), so it was an extra day celebration for me.  

The weather continues to fluctuate.  78 on Friday, 65 on Saturday, 55 Sunday, and back to 72 today.  Can you believe they are talking about flurries tonight!  With a high of 40 tomorrow.  UGH!  Some consistency would be lovely.  Consistently 70's, please!

Yep, that's all I can think of...

AMW

Favorite Things Friday - Eagle Cam

It's Friday, so that means Favorite Things Friday again inspired by Shay over at Quilting in my Pajamas.  Check it out, and join in!

This week my FTF is the Norfolk Botanical Gardens' Live Eagle Cam.  It's just been turned on, and the viewers are anxiously awaiting the laying of the eggs.  The eagle pair have already been spotted mating on camera (eagle po.rn?) so the wait for eggs is on.  This pair have been nesting together in NBG since 2003.  This is their 3rd nest location, and they have been successful in raising multiple chicks most years.
Here is a breakdown by year:
2004 - 2 eaglets
2005 - 1 eaglet
2006 - 3 eaglets
2007 - 3 eaglets
2008 - A tumultuous year - 2 eggs laid, and intruder female forced resident female from nest.  Eggs not viable.  Nearly 1 month later, resident female returned, laid 2 more eggs.  A couple of nights later, something spooked her, she jumped up and broke both eggs and laid an additional several days later.  That egg hatched, and a couple of weeks later, viewers of the webcam noticed a growth on the eaglet's beak.  Eaglet was removed and examined and diagnosed with avian pox.  He was treated and is now thriving at the Wildlife Center of Virgina, unable to be released.
2009 - 3 eaglets
2010 - 3 eaglets
2011 - CAN'T WAIT TO FIND OUT!

Seriously - this is an addiction, with no cure.  I can't wait to tune in each day to see if there area eggs, then to see if they've hatched, then to watch them learn to eat, learn to stand, learn to stretch their wings, and much more.  And then, like anxious parents waiting for their children to take their first steps, we wait for them to fly. And when they do, we are overjoyed and completely devastated at the same time!

Male on the left, Female on the right.

It's amazing to me, that people from all over the WORLD tune in and watch this cam that is in my own back yard.  It's about 4 miles from where I sit to type this.

Won't you tune in with me this year???

AMW

Pay it Forward

So, there is a "Pay it Forward"  theme going around the blog-o-sphere, and I decided to jump right in with both feet.  I found out about it from Cynthia's post  at Home Matters 1st.  


Here is how it works:

1. I will make a little something for the first 3 people who comment on this post. Your gift will be a surprise and it will arrive when you least expect it.

2. I will have 365 days from today to mail your gift.

3. You must have a blog. Hopefully you will want to post about your progress.

4. Once you comment here, you must post about your "Pay It Forward" on your blog to keep the fun going. Please use the "Pay It Forward" badge.

What's the catch? To get a handmade present from me, you have to play too! This means YOU pledge to send a little handmade something for 3 readers of your blog. It doesn't have to be quilty - just handmade.



And that's it.  Whatever I make you will be just as much a surprise to me as it is to you!  But I WILL get it done!


Any takers?


AMW

Favorite Things Friday

One of the great blogs that I read regularly, Shay over at Quilting in My Pyjamas, has a regular feature called Favorite Things Friday.  And it's just what it sounds like.  She posts about one of her favorite things, and encourages others to do the same.

Her blog is definitely one of my favorite things, but today I'll share another one.

My wood burning stove.

It's winter here on this side of the world, and so far it's been colder than normal.  And to be honest - I don't like it.  I hate to be cold, and much prefer summertime.

But my wood stove makes it bearable, and even enjoyable.  It warms the whole downstairs of the house. It has that great "fire-burning-in-the-fireplace" smell.  You can even roast marshmallows in it.  What's not to love???

So that's it.  My first Favorite Things Friday!

If you have a FTF, stop on by Ms. P's blog, and add yours to the list, too!

AMW

And here it is...

Well, this is officially my 200th post!!!  Pretty exciting for me...


I've thought and thought and thought some more about what to post for the milestone, and couldn't figure it out.


A few years ago, before starting this blog, I found a few blogs that I liked.  And would check them everyday to see what was new.  And then a friend started blogging (even though she rarely does now that she is a fairly new mom!)  Then I found out that someone else I knew had a blog.  So I figured, why not?  


I said in that first post, that it was likely going to be pretty random, and I think that's been true for the most part.  I've covered everything from trips, to pets, to quilting, to sinking kayaks, to rants about work, and on, and on, and on...


Why do I do it?  Hard to answer...


Sometimes I blogged to get something out.  Sometimes, I blogged to so I wouldn't forget the details of a fun event.  Sometimes I blogged to share my experience with others...  And sometimes I blogged because I felt obligated to.  And then when people started commenting, I realized I blogged to get responses.  It's so exciting to get a response.  And then there were followers, and I blogged so that they would have something of mine to read.


Sometimes I didn't blog, because nothing exciting had happened.  And I felt like I had to have something important to share.  Sometimes I felt I had something to share, then couldn't find time.  Or didn't have the pictures accessible.


I "follow" over 60 blogs.  Some publicly, and some anonymously.  When I look at the list, it's pretty random, too.  Some haven't posted in over a year.  Some post AT LEAST once a week, and many post either everyday, or several times a week.  And for the most part, I'm a lurker.  I rarely comment.  But love it when people comment on mine...  I guess I have only partially found my voice.  


I've been blogging for 986 days.  Or 2 years, 8 months, and 12 days.  Or 140 weeks.  Or 23,664 hours.  Or 1,419,840 minutes.  No matter how you look at it, it's been a good amount of time.  


While I can't make any specific promises about the number of posts I'll do or how often, I can promise I'll still be here, still posting as it hits, and definitely still lurking in blogland out there.


AMW


PS - WHEW!  Now that this post is out of the way, and the pressure is off, I can focus on a post about Make-My-Christmas (MMC) from Saturday night!  Stay tuned for that one with some fun pictures!!

Sooo.....

I don't know why I can't post more.

Each day, I CANNOT WAIT to see what's going on with all of the blogs that I stalk, er I mean, read. It's the highlight of my morning, and I check throughout the day as well.

I get inspired by the quilting blogs.

I catch up with friends on personal blogs.

I commiserate with bloggers that are having tough times.

I enjoy seeing what some of the odder blogs are gonna post about.

Yet - I do nothing. I think to myself that I don't have anything interesting to say.

But I sooooo enjoy the posts from the blogs that I read that even say that nothing is going on. Makes me feel connected to them somehow.

And really - it's not like I'm not working on any projects, or that nothing is going on. I just don't post it.

When I do post, I've noticed that a lot of it is about vacation. While that's wonderful and fun for me (and maybe fun for you too), I'm not on vacation THAT much. REALLY! (I just wish I was!)

I've promised before to update more, and I fall behind.

So what to do??? I WANT to post more. I just need some kind of push.... But what?

Dunno.... All I can say is that I'll try!!!

So, if you don't hear from me more/enough - YELL AT ME! Please? LOL!

AMW

Blog identity

I struggle to post...

Not struggle, so much, as just wonder what to write about. Sure, I post about trips, or funny stuff, or projects. But nothing on a regular basis...

There are blogs that I read that have something posted everyday. And it's all interesting.

There are blogs that I read that are very insightful.

Some are full of pictures.

Some are inspiring in the crafts that they do....

But, me? Well, I have so many interests, but nothing in particular. Not a "niche" per se.

Although I love quilting, and love posting about what I'm doing, that's not the whole premise of my blog.

I love kayaking and the outdoors, but there's more to it than that.

I love traveling, and posting about trips, but again, not all that I am or do...

So, what's my blog identity, and what keeps people coming back? Friends stop in so they can see what's new with me personally. But what about the rest of the blogosphere? Why do they come and what are they looking for?

Some days, I wake up and say I wanna do a post today. But about what? And then I'm at a loss... I didn't quilt over the weekend. I didn't do anything outdoorsy. I didn't travel. Nothing is new or exciting... So now what?

I'm certainly not a political person, and don't want this blog to be a political blog.

I guess, for now, it remain completely random as the name implies. No idea what will be here, but I'm gonna strive to post at least twice a week for now!

Stay tuned...

AMW

It's been rather odd here lately, when I take a look at my map. As you'll see below, I've gotten hits from all over the globe. I'm not sure what I've written here, that has sparked so much interest.

If you've found me from some other country, or even if you've randomly found me in the US, please post a comment and let me know! I'd love to hear how you happened upon my little slice of the world wide web!

Country Page Views for Map Area: United States [72%]

Spain [9%]

France [9%]

Canada [9%]

Germany [9%]

Mexico [6%]

India [8%]

United Kingdom [5%]

Italy [5%]

Hungary [5%]

Malaysia [4%]

Sweden [4%]

Greece [4%]

Romania [4%]

Norway [3%]

Russia [3%]

Portugal [3%]

Pakistan [3%]

Brazil [3%]

Netherlands [2%]

Switzerland [2%]

Turkey [2%]

Ukraine [2%]

Venezuela [2%]

Argentina [2%]

European Union [1%]

Bulgaria [1%]

Azerbaijan [1%]

Morocco [1%]

Egypt [1%]

Belgium [1%]

Estonia [1%]

Iran [1%]

Finland [1%]

Singapore [1%]

Poland [1%]

United Arab Emirates [1%]

Thailand [1%]

Israel [1%]

Colombia [1%]

Ecuador [1%]

Paraguay [1%]

Honduras [1%]

New Zealand [1%]

Chile [1%]

So stop on in to the comment section and say hi!

AMW

Completely Random Update

Well, I sure have been delinquent in my blogging, haven't I?  Have I lost all of my readers?  All 2 of you?  LOL!!  Kidding!  I hope there's at least 3...

This is likely to be a complete hodge-podge random update.  

It's been an extremely busy summer!  A friend is staying at our house for a bit, so there is the dynamics of a third person.  Kind of strange, as there have only been two of us in the house for 3 years.  We're adjusting.  I'm not sure if I've ever lived with someone that shows signs of ADD and OCD.  It certainly makes for an interesting combination.

Since it's summertime - there have been lots of "gatherings"!   Several have been birthdays with pool parties that have been fun beyond words.  There have been impromptu "porch" nights, dinner at friends houses, and a near-weekly breakfast at Paul's Restaurant.  (I promise a FULL post with pictures about Paul's in the not-to-distant future.)

Our ADD/OCD houseguest has an over abundance of energy, and has a list of projects she's working on at our house.  She just re-roofed one of our sheds, edged the front brick walk with a shovel, cleaned and re-organized the back patio, and has dug up an overgrown flower garden, complete with pulling out bushes with her truck.  Did I mention she's only been with us for 3 weeks???  For her next trick - she'll do cartwheels while simultaneously cooking a gourmet meal for 100 of our closest friends in between re-grouting all three bathrooms!  She moves too fast for pictures, so there will be no photographic evidence.  

Work has been a bit on the stressful side.  Without dwelling on it too much, I'll just say that even though I own my own business, I still have to do what others tell me to do.  The owners of the building that pay my contract have had some requests lately that are affecting business.  And since business is already slow due to the economy, well, let's just say that it's nearing the painful stage.  I'll get through it.

My Casey-Dog (who is 13, by the way!) has started having a little more issues.  Her hips are bothering her more, and she's taking to chewing herself raw in spots.  And this is a dog that doesn't take kindly to your trying to help her.  If you try to clean a sore spot, she's likely to turn around an nip!  I've never bathed her...  I've always taken her to a groomer.  And clean her ears?  No thank you!  They can muzzle her at the vet, or they can risk the nibble that she'll give them.  So imagine when we take her to the vet, and the vet says to clean the area twice a day, and apply this cream.  Oh, and don't let her lick it.   Hmmm....  This poses yet another problem!  We all know that most dogs dislike the plastic collars, but my dog FREAKS.OUT.  Yeah, having her die of a heart attack from the stress of a plastic collar kinda defeats the purpose.  So I've tried just about everything!  What works?  When we're home, we keep her on a leash, so we can monitor her every move.  When we go to work, I put a doggy diaper on her that covers her raw hip, with a piece of gauze under it for a little more protection.  That was after trying a t-shirts (put on her backwards), and soft collar, and self-adhesive gauze.  All of those were not pretty either.  She's not thrilled with the doggy diaper, but she tolerates it.  We go back for a follow-up visit today.

Overall, the summer has been fantastic!  There are still more parties to attend before the summer is over.  We got invited to THREE for this Saturday, alone.  We can only make it to one, which is a bummer, but there are more lined up!

And then......  BOWLING starts up!  I know you can hardly wait for the weekly bowling updates, can you?????

What summer fun have you been up to?  Leave a comment here for me!

AMW

WILB

I saw this article the other day, and thought that it was a good one.  I was quite glad that I had free reign to pretty much go anywhere on the web that I needed/wanted to at work.  Leisure or Work.  Let's take a look at the article, then we'll chat.  K?

Facebook, YouTube at work make better employees: study

Thu Apr 2, 2009 10:13am EDT

 

1 of 1Full Size

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Caught Twittering or on Facebook at work? It'll make you a better employee, according to an Australian study that shows surfing the Internet for fun during office hours increases productivity.

The University of Melbourne study showed that people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive that those who do not.

Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing, said "workplace Internet leisure browsing," or WILB, helped to sharpened workers' concentration.

"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," Coker said on the university's website (www.unimelb.edu.au/)

"Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days' work, and as a result, increased productivity," he said.

According to the study of 300 workers, 70 percent of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB.

Among the most popular WILB activities are searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.

"Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity," said Coker. "That's not always the case."

However, Coker said the study looked at people who browsed in moderation, or were on the Internet for less than 20 percent of their total time in the office.

"Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without," he said.

(Writing by Miral Fahmy; Editing by Valerie Lee)  

This is a pretty good article, in my opinion, and just shows that some "workplace internet leisure browsing" or WILB is a good thing.   So wouldn't you know that right after reading this article, the server I'm on has blocked any site worth going to.  Sure, most sites that I need for work are available (except for "visual search engines", i.e. Google Images) but nearly all of the sites that I want to go to are now blocked.  And it appears to be done carte-blanche by category.  Let's look:

Chat/Social Networking 

• Facebook
• Myspace

Photo-Sharing

• Flickr
• Picasa
• Snapfish
• Photobucket
• And probably more

Streaming Video

• YouTube
• Ustream

Classifieds

• Craigslist

Visual Search Engines

• Google Images
• Yahoo Images

Forums/Message Groups

• Yahoo Groups

Blogs/Social Networking

• Vox.com

I'm sure this is not comprehensive.  These are just the sites that I've noticed.  Blogger does not appear to be affected (yet), as well as mail sites (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.).  And it also doesn't appear to affect online shopping.  I can get to ebay, amazon, google shopping.  Or online travel sites.   I can also get to all the news sites.  

Wouldn't shopping at work be more detrimental that just checking in on your friends at FB and staying connected?

Maybe (hopefully) this is a temporary thing, and it will all blow over soon.  I sure miss the streaming video sites that I had gotten attached to that I mentioned in THIS post.  But also one that I hadn't mentioned before of a Great Horned Owl with two Owlettes.  And I sure do miss Facebook.  I guess it all means that I will be a little less productive at work.   Bummer!

AMW

Sprained Ankle

Ok - so I'm going to attempt to catch up on some of the many things I've been meaning to blog about.  

To start off the New Year, D and I went on a cache run on Jan 3.  It was to be a high number day to get me toward a goal of hitting 2000 for the milestone event the following week.  We set out early on Saturday, and went out to VB since we have so many unfound out there.  The day was going well, and within a short time at mid-morning we already had 10 finds, with a couple of DNF's, and been questions by police.  We were pulling up to a quick park and grab when I stepped out of the truck, onto a gum-ball, rolled my ankle pretty good, caught myself, but then fell as soon as I put weight on said ankle.  So there I was, on the ground, in a parking lot, from a gum-ball.  D didn't see what happen, cause a likely hiding spot was on her side of the car, and she jumped out (without incident) to look for the cache.  Next thing she knows is that I'm on the ground calling her name asking for a little help.

She gets me up and in the car (we DNF'd the cache), and head to a nearby Starbucks (where there just also happened to be a cache).  I hobble inside, she makes the cache find, and we try to figure out what to do next.  The nice folks at SBUX give us some ice as I've swollen up pretty good.  

Well, now I was pretty sure I couldn't go on caching for the day, as I was in a pretty good amount of pain, so we went home, and I iced it all day.  I did the whole RICE thing (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) for Saturday and Sunday.  I figured it wasn't broken, cause I could walk on it, although not without pain.  

I skipped bowling last Wednesday, cause it was still sore, tender, and swollen.  Rested a bit more over the weekend.  I'm gonna give bowling a shot tonight, and see how it does.  It's still pretty swollen, but doesn't hurt quite as bad as it has.  Some shoes are more uncomfortable than others.  It's a process, I suppose.  

I don't have very good insurance since I own my own business (that's a whole other post), so I didn't go get it checked.  But a friend of ours is a former ER nurse, and she saw me that Saturday night and said if I could walk, I was fine.  So I suppose I'm fine.  But it sure has hurt a lot for being fine!  (Yep, being a cry-baby!)

AMW

Behind on blogging

Ok - so now I feel like I'm so far behind on blogging that I may never catch up.  I've got pictures and stories, and so much stuff to blog about that I don't know to start.  And since there is always something new, do I just skip the other stuff, since I'm sure to leave out details?  UGH!  The pressure.....

I'll see what I can do about getting caught up soon...  I hope....

AMW

Why not?

It seems like everyone and their brother has blogs nowadays. So, I thought, Why Not me? Here it is. This will likely be random thoughts on different subjects. You never know what you might find here.....

AMW