Call and Answer.

The other day as I was out running errands, I felt the call of the thrift.   If you’ve never felt that call before, it’s hard to describe.  It’s a gut feeling that if you don’t go to the thrift store right there and then, you will miss out on something that needs to come home with you.  I have a love/hate thing for the SPCA Rummage Sale Store, but I found myself pulling into the parking lot Wednesday afternoon just as a parking space magically opened up.  Clearly, the fates were aligned.

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11 Questions.

The thing about blogging is wondering exactly what people want to read- for instance, I almost didn’t publish that last post on cantaloupe jam because I had this second thought after writing it that no one really cared two cents about cantaloupe jam.   I was very pleasantly surprised to see that indeed some of you actually like hearing about cantaloupe jam.  I always get a little thrill when I hear how much someone likes this blog – this whole thing started on a lark trying to keep a lost then found creative spark that is so much a part of me that I don’t ever want to lose it again.   In a little internet game of tag you’re it, Meridith over at Counting Chickens gave me a little shout-out along with a list of questions that were optional for me to answer.  And if you know me, you know that I bounce from subject to subject, so why should my blog be any different?  This one is for you Meridith.

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The Calvert Party Encyclopedia

My friend Allison, who happens to be the same Allison that did an entire weekend camping trip wearing a trash bag as a poncho in 3 inches of rain because I assured her there was no rain in the forecast and therefore, it was not worth running home for – which I would also like to point out she was an absolute trooper about, but then, that’s Allison.  She’s one of those rock solid people who takes everything in stride.  She’s the kind of friend you can call on a cold, snowy Saturday in January and ask to please bring you a chocolate banana milkshake because you just had a baby and your husband has told you his days of running out to please your every whim are over, thankyouverymuch and she then walks all over downtown in the snow looking for anything that’s open that will make you a chocolate banana milkshake and while she’s at it, she brings along a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which you’ve been craving for the last 9 months just in case the six pack you had sitting in the cooler on the back porch for such an event accidentally got left on the back porch in the excitement of leaving to have a baby, because it did.

She’s that kind of friend.   Kinda the bomb.

Allison came down to visit recently and brought me a most delightful gift that as soon as I opened it, knew I had to share it here. Continue reading →

Not Camping.

DSCN3472In talking about a little getaway with my husband, I suggested that perhaps we could go camping.  As I pretty much never offer to do this, I thought he’d like the idea.  It’s not that I don’t like camping, it’s just that almost every camping trip we’ve ever gone on has been rained on.  Sometimes spectacularly and memorably so.  Like the time we camped out in a tropical storm on the beach at the Outer Banks.  Or the time we did a three day canoe trip with Smiley & the gang.  Then there was the trip when I was pregnant with Edie were no rain was in the forecast – Allison didn’t even bring her rain gear and as soon as we put in, the bottom of the sky fell out and we got something like 3 inches of rain that weekend.  We had friends with us that were covered in head to toe goretex who pouted the entire time – which considering I was pregnant, cold, uncomfortable and wet the entire time should have been my job.  Continue reading →