Chat

Holy Smokes — it’s the middle of December already.  And not a Christmas post in sight around here.  Very sad.  How ’bout a picture of Santa hanging in my kitchen?

There, now I feel better.  But that has nothing to do with this post.  ;-)

You know how you always hear stories about people who do fun things for strangers?  Like pay for the car behind them in the drive-thru lane?  Or something like Karin’s fun with words of hope and kindness?  I’m always too chicken to do something like that.  Or too busy.  Or too out-to-lunch.

But the Saturday after Thanksgiving was a little different. I was in the Target check-out line and started up a conversation with this cute little cashier.  We’ll call her Lucy (not really her name, you know.)  We were making small talk and I asked her if she’d survived Black Friday.

“Oh Yes!  All 10 hours of it for me.”  She was so cheery and happy.  As she was ringing up my towels, she said,

“I took advantage of the towel sale too.  My niece is going to Purdue and I want to get them embossed for her.”  (That really made me smile!)

“Oh, that’s my favorite gift to get new college students.  Towels in their school colors with a monogram on them.”

Then she asked me where I get my towels done and I told her that I was lucky and had my own machine.  She hesitated for a minute and then said,

“Could I pay you to do mine for me?”

Oooooh.  I didn’t expect that.  So, I politely told her that I don’t really embroider for other people, there’s just not enough time.  And we discussed a few places that she might find to embroider her towels.

Then I rushed off to the post office and my other errands.

Only I couldn’t stop thinking about cute little Lucy and how excited she was to give these towels to her niece.  And how hard she was working.  And how happy and cheerful she was while standing on her feet all day waiting on customers.  I even got a tear in my eye!

Would it really kill me to embroider a few towels for someone who’d brightened my day a little?  So, I ran back to Target and sheepishly told her I’d embroider her towels for her.  (After all, we didn’t even know each other.  It was a leap of faith on her part to give towels she’d paid for to a perfect stranger.)  She was so excited, it was fun to arrange the pick-up and drop-off.

After I finished the towels, I dropped them off and then called Lucy to tell them she could pick them up.  She’d already seen them and she was SO sweet and so grateful.  She said she loved them.  She even said she almost cried when she saw them.

That made it all worthwhile. That’s what I’m talking about!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. I really  didn’t tell you this so you’ll say what a nice thing to do or anything. I contemplated turning comments off (heh, why bother, my server does that enough for me, but I digress) but I’m hoping maybe you’ll tell me about something totally random and fun that you’ve done or heard about?

… the kitties who drag sweaters around?

We outsmarted them. We close the bedroom door so they can’t get to the sweaters anymore. Then, they outsmarted us back. Now they drag the t.v. blankets from the family room all around the house. Every night when we come home, there’s at least one blanket on the floor. (Oh look … there’s the little culprit surveying his handiwork.)

Sometimes, the quilt is by their dinner bowl. They might be sending a signal.

… the little boy who could recite Billy Collins poetry?

He actually met, and talked to Billy Collins! You can read the All Things Considered story and listen to the interview.  Definitely worth your time.  (Thanks to Jill for the tip.)

… knitting here in ThimbleannaLand? In particular, the yarn that I bought at the end of this post?

I know. It’s pitiful. Not much knitting goes on around here. Most of my knitting was done on airplanes, and since I don’t travel much anymore, I’m struggling to find knitting time. The yarn mentioned, is a pair of socks in progress — they’ve been on the needles for. ev. er. The good news is the heel has been turned, so there’s hope in sight!

… the advent calendar I made last year?

I gave it to MyDadLovesMeBestSister and it looks much better in her house. CuteNiece2 was excitedly explaining to me last week that they don’t put the numbers in order and it makes it a lot more fun to figure out which day they’re on.  (Do I get a prize for a run-on sentence?  I had to squeeze this one in here — there really needed to be something Christmas-y on this post.  Speaking of pitiful!)

So, those were a few things I just know you were losing sleep over.  Now, off to bed!

XOXO,
Anna

Oh, and P.S. How fantastic is this cool idea from the Divine Twine website?

Really. Look at those sugar jars! I think they were made just for Divine Twine. Look how perfectly the spool fits into the jar!

(And shameless plug: the twine is still 20% off!)

I think I hate you.

There.  I said it.  I don’t mean to be cruel or anything, but, really, are you TRYING to drive me to drink???  I know I shouldn’t complain and all, because I know you provide a free service to many of my blog buddies, but could you please consider professional help?  I’m pretty sure you’re schizophrenic. I guess it’s only fair — if you’re out of your mind, you might as well try and take the rest of us down with you.

Let’s look at all of the various painful ways you torture me when I try to enter a comment on a friendly blog.

There’s the username and password option.

Which sometimes goes through successfully, and sometimes pops up a new window and makes me enter a word verification.

Or, sometimes you cut right to the chase and let me enter it all on one screen.

But, really, WHY do I have to enter my username and password?  I mean, after all, I AM logged onto YOUR google reader, can’t you figure out who I am without continuing to make me log in?   Apparently, sometimes you CAN figure that out and you skip right to the word verification.

Which is sometimes more like an eye test the way you squish those letters together.

And let’s not forget this little gem.

Oh, how I hate thee, pull down window.  Because you, my friend, pop up another window for the word verification.  This might not be too bad, but, apparently, I have some sort of security thingy set on my computer to protect me from YOU and this little pop up never happens.  You eat my comment EVERY time.  Which means I can’t comment on these blogs from my main squeeze computer.  (And there are an increasing number of blogs that use this window — could it be your latest upgrade?)

And let us not forget all the many little hissy fits you’ve been throwing over the past few weeks.

Only, you lie.  Your service isn’t always unavailable.  Sometimes the comment goes through and sometimes it doesn’t.  And if I happen to miss whether the blog has comment moderation turned on (which I most certainly did miss) then I never really know IF my comment went through, DO I?  Hmmmm????

The worst part of it is, Mr. Blogger, that my sweet bloggy friends might think I’m complaining about them.  I assure you I AM NOT.  I know you’re making THEM miserable too, what with all those untraceable comments that they get, and all.

Mr. Blogger.  This is NOT Rocket Science.  Perhaps you could take a page from the wordpress playbook and provide your public with a spam plugin.  I know you’re trying.  My bloggy friend Cathy says you have a new option.  But it’s not working.  C’mon — I know you can do it — I’ve stumbled across the perfect form that YOU produced.

See???  Was that so hard?  All I had to do was type in my comment and hit publish.  No signing in.  No word verification.  Give it Your Best Shot!

XOXO,
Anna

For a few years now, I’ve been reading several blogs that, while generally crafty sorts of blogs, talk occasionally about running.  After awhile, your start to think, “Hey – maybe I could run a bit too!”  So, late last summer (as in 2009) I decided I was going to become a runner.  I ran every other day for about 3 weeks and after the first week, my knees started killing me and by the third week, I could barely walk.  I consulted My physical therapist CrazyBIL and he said “What do you expect, you’ve been a lazy-bum couch potato all your life, so give it up!”  Ok, not really, but he did say that my leg muscles were weak, which was causing my knees to take the brunt of the impact and he gave me exercises to do.

I occasionally faithfully did the exercises over the winter and decided to try again in the spring.  This time, I tried the couch to 5k program with a friend from work.  After three weeks, my knees were doing great, but my legs were killing me.  Fortunately, quilt market came along and saved me from myself.  After market, I tried to pick up where I’d left off, but had to quit again after three weeks.  Walking around peg-leg-like isn’t a good look.

So, I sat around for a week or two and gave it some thought.  I decided maybe I was running too often.  I started going to the Y and working out every day on the implement from hell elliptical machine.  That way, I could keep up with the aerobic part of running and minimize the impact to my knees.  After a week or two, I started running on the track, once every 4 or 5 days.  It worked!  No more soreness at all.  I found the ticket, except for two things:  I loathe the elliptical machine and running on a track is soooo boring.  I’ve decided I’ll just have to suffer and give myself the occasional reward, like this one below, after the first time I finally made it to a mile.  Suffering requires trade-offs!

I’ll never be a Finny or Raina or Jen, but if I can run a little now and then, I’ll be content.  So far, I’ve made it up to 1.5 miles on the track and yesterday, I decided what-the-heck, let’s try for 2 miles outside — should be easy without the boredom of the track, right?  Ha!  I hadn’t factored in the heat and humidity and slight hills.  Lucky for me, at 1.25 miles I had to stop to cross a busy 4-lane highway, so I bagged it and walked the rest of the way home.  One must improvise when required.

I have no clue where my little running adventure will take me.  I’m not really losing any weight (see reward program above.)  Unlike Jan, exercise doesn’t discourage snacking.  Quite the opposite — the little devil on my left shoulder says “Oh, go ahead, you just burned off some extra calories.”  Apparently Jan has the little angel on her shoulder.  Anyway, just in case you’ve been having trouble running or exercising, I thought you might benefit from the knowledge of what seems to be working for me.  Don’t try to run too frequently (but exercise in between) and a little extra sugar never hurts.  ;-)

XOXO,
Anna

P.S.  Thank you SOOO much for all your wonderful comments on my ghastlies.  I had several questions on where to get the fabric.  It’s getting pretty hard to find now, but there are rumors that Alexander Henry plans to rerun the fabric next year with a new set of coordinating prints.  I hope so — the frenzy that these fabric companies create by short fabric runs drives me crazy!