family

i went south this past weekend to visit my mother, so this week i am thankful for:

1. fun times visiting my family and friends. i got to spend time with my best girl alice and my girlfriend krista, which was really nice because i don't see krista often and alice is great fun. my family is fun too, and my mother's brother and his wife were down from seattle as well as my grandparents and my sister. we ate good food and played cards, which is what my family does. everyone was down for my mom's birthday, the big 6-0.


my sweet grandparents have been married for 61 years!


i have not seen my uncle harry and his wife mary since brian and i got married. harry is hiding behind mary, who is a whole lot of fun. it was really great to get to see them and spend time with them.


i learned a new game called golf (not solitaire golf), which is insanely easy and pretty fun. my grandma, who swears - whether we play cribbage, rummy, or anything else - that she hasn't gotten good cards in ten years, of course won. she is a sneaky one, that lady.

2. generous moms. i had made another one of this blouse, this time in a plain white batiste. heaven knows a basic white blouse is a wardrobe staple. at least it is in my wardrobe. i wanted to jazz it up some and my mother's machine does fancy embroidery stitches that mine does not. i also put some fancy (for me) buttons on. it is still a basic white blouse, but now with this:


it is kind of hard to tell i think, but the embroidery stitch is little leaves on a vine. i did it in white sulky embroidery thread, which is 100% rayon and shiny so the tone-on-tone embroidery stands out. i had never used sulky thread before and i am not sure i love it. the thread kept breaking and i don't know if it was the tension or the machine or the stitch or what. maybe i was doing something wrong and i didn't know it. the embroidery turned out very pretty though and i really like it. that is basically why i love sewing, because i can make something like a basic white blouse and put my own special little touch on it, just for me.

3. safe driving and nice weather. even though we are a bit farther north now than we were in marin county, the drive is actually 30 miles and 30 minutes shorter. it was a beautiful sunny day both on the way down and the way home. i was very surprised to see some snow still, at the very tips of the san bernardino mountains:


every time we drive down together, brian gets excited when we get to san dimas, because of bill & ted's excellent adventure. (i get excited because it means the end is near[ish].) so i had to call him and tell him how EXcellent it was that i was in san dimas.


pyramid lake (in the angeles national forest, near the grapevine) looked pretty good to me. i have never stopped there but i always want to. i really like mountain lakes like that. someday...


these signs always crack me up. what, you thought sacramento and san francisco were like 100 miles apart? nope, they're right next to each other. no, really! also, i have a bridge for sale if you're interested.


* yes, i understand the sign. they still make me smile.