June 13, 2006

What a lovely gift!

And what a surprise!!! I opened the door to the mailman today to discover an unexpected package from the US, from Judy K., a fellow stitcher from the Prairie Schooler group. I am waiting for Judy to tell me who the designer is. The Santa is finished so beautifully! It has a real fluffy beard and every detail is just so cute. As I often write, I am so sentimental about such lovely gifts... Some Christmas pieces stay around all the year long... and remind me of the person who send it to me.


Thank you so much, Judy! You really didn;t have to do all this because of a small (long forgotten) misunderstanding, but I appreciate it and ... I am so happy you wanted to do this for me!!
I will cherish that piece year after year and many will be the jealous eyes who will look at MY Santa! LOL

Not much more to say today... Errands and work.... The assignment for Thursday is a major PITA, it's a tax decision on... 35 pages... and not an easy one to translate.

Diet not good today, met my cousin's wife nearby and had some non-diet food. Not much but I am not happy with myself :-(

June 12, 2006

From Brooke Nolan's newsletter: The Gift of Stitching http://www.thegiftofstitching.com
Check this, you might like it. This is an online mazagine for cross stitchers, full of content, if you ask me. You can download May's issue for free and to subscribe, it's a whole plain one US dollar per issue = 12 usd per year of subscription. Currently considering the expense, because it's not much and it looks interesting. Interesting article about various overdyes.
In PDF (Acrobat) format. Easy and harder charts, a little bit of everything for everyone.
Happy reading!

In case you wondered what I am up to, since I am mostly silent on my groups and so late replying to emails... On that last thing, I am close to getting enough strenght to reply to everyone... though my guilt is reaching new peaks lately.
First and most important, I went on a diet on May 1st and have lost 11 kgs till now. It's still very far from what could be called an acceptable look and goal, but for the first time in my whole life, I am successful and I won't fail, that I already know. However, that takes all my mental strenght and energy, all my days are concentrated on the diet, and I where I fail, it's at keeping a regular contact with friends online. Therefore if you feel you like me a bit, I kindly ask you to be patient with me this year, I will be back to my normal self, it's just that I need to do THIS.
Second, work is still poor and money problems still the major topic of each day. However, I realize I am *not* doing everything I could to get more jobs, but hey, I am only human and losing weight really is what counts most this year. Being overweight made me depressed, tired, feeling hopeless... This had to change.
Third, I am almostat the end of the long procedure that will allow me to bring Happy on the plane with me to Norway for the summer. It's been an exmepsnive journey gathering all the tests and blood samples and results and checks and what else, but all that is left now is a pill against worms during the last 10 days before the travel and within 7 days after arrival, and buying a comfortable IATA-approved cage. Which also costs a small fortune but I can't skip that step. He won't be able to travel in the cabin but I am strongly hoping that with his general positive attitude to life, good health etc., the 4 hours (maximum) trauma will be fast forgotten. In those 4 ours, I count the 1h50 flight and the time between the check in and flying off, where we will be separated. I have done all I could so the Norwegian customs find all the papers okay.
Fourth, I am flying to Oslo on July 13th and returning Sept. 6th. Two months, two full months with my darling!
Fifth, we just bought expensive tickets for Pavarotti for Sept 5 in Oslo, a concert within what he called his Farewell Tournee. Yippeeeeeeee!
That will be all for today.... Time to relax a bit.

Okay, you just have to see this.
After our experience metting a mommy bear with two 2,5 months old cubs in the mountains in Zakopane, we became very interested on the topic of bears, bears meeting people, surviving a close encounter with a bear etc.
I just got this in my inbox. And see the photo with that (relatively) small cat down the tree!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5067912.stm

Now I know. Next time we're hiking in the Femundsmarka in Norway, I should bring Toska the Cat Queen with us! ROTFL
Speaking of whom, here's a photo of Maaaadam taken last week:

June 08, 2006

A new blog and a new journey

Okay, so I'm starting a new blog, moving from Yahoo 360. Actually I liked the previous one and the possibility it gave to see friend's new postings at a glance, but one thing always annoyed me: the small photos Yahoo allows to publish and only one per post. I am very loyal to my choices so if this one works well, it'll be a keeper! :-)