Fair & Square round 5

An enormous wedding-recap post is on the way, but these deserve a special post of their own. Here is my Fair & Square exchange from Michele!



I'd never *met* Michele (in the blogosphere) before partnering with her for this exchange, but I was immediately struck by how similar our stitching tastes are. As I was looking through her albums of finishes the thought in my head was either "Oh, I've stitched that too!", "I love that design", "That's in my queue", or "I'd totally stitch that if not for the [insert holiday that I don't celebrate here]-y theme".

So it's no surprise to me that Michele picked such a perfect-for-me design. This wasn't even on my radar to stitch, and now I can't believe that I missed it. I love the dark fabric that she chose to stitch on too, much more "me" than the "recommended" color from the website.

Michele sent along some eerily perfect goodies with her exchange packet:

• a Little Notebook - how did she know that I LOVE little notebooks and writing lists and reminders to myself
• a small photo frame - I took nearly a gigabyte of photos on Sunday at the wedding (and I'll share some later :-D
• a packet of really cute tissues - I caught a cold yesterday. (however I'm using plain white tissues because the others are too pretty to use, of course!)

Michele, your exchange was spot on. Thank you so much for being my partner this round!

I'm going to borrow Michele's photo of what I sent her, because hers came out much better than the one I took (Hope you don't mind! :)

The Grandma update:
The doctors totally didn't expect Grandma to do so well after they took her off the meds Friday - the opposite in fact. Saturday night they said that if we put her back on the meds and stuff, she'll probably make it through the wedding. So we did.

Grandma is stable. They really don't think she's coming home though. Not to go into too much detail, but since the beginning of December she's had a rapid decline physically and there's no reversing that. Even if they could get her to be exactly as healthy as she was last week at this time... that wasn't all that much better. And as healthy as last week isn't even an option.

My cousin, her 6th & final grandchild, flew back from Israel yesterday (a few days earlier than planned for the wedding). So now everyone has seen Grandma and said our goodbyes... and we're just hoping she sticks around long enough to tell her that her first grandchild got married.

Btw, my cousin doesn't live in Israel. He's there for a gap year (between high school and college). I saw him very briefly last night and he's doing GREAT. It's amazing what 7 months away from your parents does to mature a person.

Over the weekend at the hospital, naturally the conversation often turned to wedding preparations. The guys are of course waiting for the absolute last second to decide on shirts, ties, shoes, etc. Then I realized that I don't have shoes either! So last night I ran out to DSW after work to pick some up. I got 4 pair... one that I thought my mom would approve of, 2 of the same style but different materials, and a pair of funky shoes that I bought for everyday. We ended up going with one of the pairs that have the same style... and then I realized that I must've tried the other style on for sizing, because the pair I liked consisted of 2 left shoes! It was a mad dash back to DSW but they were pretty nice about the returns and the, um, exchange. Lol.

Last night I started my biscornu for the HoE exchange. I'm ridiculously busy this weekend with wedding stuff so I made this a travel project. In the end I went with the Violets pattern (sorry guys) because I dont' have black fabric, and I liked how the blues and greens looked on white better. It's a fairly quick stitch - so far I'm almost done with the leaves.

On a completely different note... I feel like I should add my 2 cents about the latest news from NY. In case you live in a hole (or Australia), here's an article from the WSJ (because the NYTimes is kinda evil).

The whole Governor Spitzer scandal sucks. I liked the guy because
a) he's a democrat
b) he's not ancient like most politicians
c) he seemed to be shaking things up, which is always good

But DUDE. If you're going on a crusade and saying that you're cleaning house, and that politicians need to be more honest, etc. ... well clearly you also need to be more honest! As in, regular honest but especially: more honest than the people you're criticizing. Like it or not, prostitution is illegal and that makes you dishonest and a hypocrite.

Does Spitzer need to step down? Imo, not yet. NY does not need a governor that's in jail, so if he's convicted, then for sure. But nobody is perfect, so stepping down for 1 transgression... seems harsh to me. On the news this morning they were talking about him committing a felony, in which case this is no longer just 1 transgression... so we'll see what happens. I'm sure we'll all be getting a crash course in the laws concerning prostitution very soon.

However, if this whole debacle has destroyed his credibility and clout with his fellow politicians, he will no longer be effective or capable of fulfilling the role of governor and should, imo, step down immediately. I hope that Ego and Face doesn't cause Spitzer to stick around past his ability to do his job.

That's my 2 cents. Rant over.

It snowed Friday, like a lot of snow. We had probably 4-5 inches by the time I left for work, and then it kept falling until after noon. Of course this was the weekend I was spending with JS in Manhattan, the one weekend when I'd be doing a LOT of walking. Figures. It was a great visit though! JS was making Friday night so we didn't have to go anywhere :D An old friend from HS was invited with his fiance, whom I've met before but only briefly. I like her a lot and she seems to be a really good match for my friend.

There's like 4-5 options for shul Saturday mornings on the UWS. It seems like the way it works is that you find out where your host goes and then either daven there or arrange to be there by the time the kiddush starts. R, one of our hosts, told us he'd be at the Young Israel. We didn't see R at the kiddush, or anyone else that we wanted to talk to. Shul count:1, acquaintance/friend count:1 guy from college who'd clearly forgotten my name.

JS said we should check the Jewish Center, because we might not be able to get into R's apt building on our own. Okay. This involved a 10 block walk and then climbing 5 flights of stairs in 3 inch heels (it's a lot for me, ok?!?). Luckily for everyone we found R's roomate there! We also saw and said hi to:

• JS's & my other roomate from senior year
  
• 2 of the 4 guys from our Ecuador trip
• JF's older brother
• a friend I've known since kindergarten, but I'll talk about him in another post
  
• 8 million other people
  

The UWS makes me so ADD. Luckily we found everyone we needed to find and were able to head out. Shul count: 2 friend count: 8 million

Lunch was long and fun, I'll spare you the details but want to mention that R's roomate did all the cooking and prep (aside from the dish that JS brought), and he did a really good job. So it seems that guys can cook, but most of the ones I know just don't want to or are in some way deficient. Good to know.

Saturday night I went out for coffee with JF to celebrate her birthday, then to dinner with JS and DS at their friend's place, then out to a bar on the UES to celebrate JS's birthday, JS leaving the UWS, and DS getting a new job. Kind of a busy night :-)

Sunday I caught a very early train home, and Mom and I went to my cousin's fiancee's bridal shower in Jersey. It was at the fiancee's aunt's house, which is really gorgeous. My mom picked out our gift, we got them a toaster oven. When the fiancee opened the gift she started laughing. While they were registering, my cousin had absolutely no preference as to what she picked (which is so like him) except to say he wanted to register for a toaster oven.

Sunday night I brought Grandma some ice cream. She is known for having a fully stocked freezer in case company stops by. Grandma was doing much better than on my previous visit and speaking louder so we could actually have a conversation.

Yesterday I went out to dinner with my parents and J. My parents almost always chose fish restaurants and I HATE fish (even though I have tuna for lunch 2-3 times a week), so after the last time I had enough and declared that I was picking the next restaurant. Guess where we went? Exactly. I kept my choice a secret (they're so much fun to tease), but J guessed it right. He's a smart one. Everyone seemed to like the restaurant, judging by the quartet of clean plates, so I think we'll be back. And I might get to pick the restaurant again someday.

On the crafting front I have nothing spectacular to report

• I made another dishcloth, with a dog on it, that I'll keep since it matches my bathroom.
• I'm about 50% through a sock - :-) Next up: double knitting socks - :-D
• I started CCN's Summer Garden but I've only stitched 3 letters. I'll show pics when there's something to see
• My SBBC exchange was received! You can find photos of the finished Shamrocks Fob on Jenn's blog. I didn't use the recommended overdyed because my LNS didn't have the right shade of Needle Necessities. I used WDW or GAST's Pine instead because it matched the DMCs the best. I also couldn't find all the recommended Mill Hill beads at my LNS so I substituted some seedbeads I had on hand.
  

Stay tuned for some sock knitting photos later. Unless I lose the cable again...