It seems like I forgot that I had a blog, right?

In a way.. I did. Life has been busy.. and it seems like I had nothing to write about, nothing exciting to share, and no photos to share.. (darn slow Internet here)... that made it difficult to share the photos that I did take.. however,

SOME GOOD NEWS.. I have been out and every weekend since Thanksgiving and now that I am winter break from teaching.. I do have a lot to share. So, look for upcoming updates in the near future.

Weather: SNOW on the ground

Locations that I've visited... or lived...

visited 26 states (11.5%)
Create your own visited map of The World


I found this map... and thought it would be interesting to fill out the different locations. Europe seems pretty empty and a few other regions.. I guess I need to get busy visiting? Of course.. visiting other locations take takes money, doesn't it? A minor detail... but, a big one! :D

CLUES that IT might be time to stop the gift knitting...

I've been working off and on knitting some of my Christmas gifts. I only have one gift 100% completed... Here it is...

This was knitted out of a pretty royal blue mohair yarn.. for a nice elderly lady that I know in southern Oklahoma. I thought that it would keep her warm and be nice to not have to worry about the ends of her scarf coming undone while she was out doing errands or working in the yard.









Last night, I opened up one of my photo files on my computerand as I scanned the photos.... I noticed something very familiar... very, very familiar...

Yes, you are seeing that right.. it is the exact same scarf, in the exact same yarn, knitted in the exact same color.. and dare I admit it? Already knitted and gifted to the same person... YES, the same person.. that I had knitted and planned to gift this 2009 version to... sigh *At least, I noticed the duplication before I mailed the scarf to Oklahoma.


I do have just enough yarn left to knit some gloves or mittens. At least, I won't have to worry if the colors will match.. since, I know that the yarn is a perfect match to the scarf that she already has... :D


I mean.. it's bad enough to give the exact same purchased gift to someone...


.. but, honestly.. to KNIT THE EXACT SAME ITEM, OUT OF THE EXACT SAME YARN, IN THE EXACT SAME COLOR? and plan to give it to the exact same person???

Say it ain't so...

Last Wednesday morning, I walked outside to my car, ready to drive to work. I walked outside without a jacket or coat- since.. it hadn't been cold up to this point- just early morning chilly-ness.

AND.. what did I see? *Notice the red roses in the background?





Not only the first frost of the year.. but, a light dusting of actual snowflakes. I opened up the door, put in my purse and my lunch.. and grabbed the now very cold cotton cloth thin jacket that I had left in the car the day before- because of the rain... and I started digging around for the ice scraper from the last time that I had used it in March.

The next morning, Thursday, I looked out my classroom window and I had to do a double take.. it was snowing.. not only snowing but the snow was already sticking on the blacktop, the grass, and the rooftops visible from my classroom. It snowed all day long and when I got home.. I still had a few reminders of the first snowfall of the upcoming winter season....Look at the roses now!




It also snowed all day on Friday... and it sleeted for about 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon.

Good news... my snow tires are on my Jeep now.. but, truthfully.. I just never, ever thought that I'd ever live where I needed snow tires. :D

Now, that I'm home.. from the Polish Pottery dish shopping adventure

I wish that I had bought these items....

Polish Pottery Shopping

We stopped at many different places.. sometimes an area would have up to 6 different shops and truthfully.. I didn't go into all of them. There was just too much to see- and it sometimes took quite awhile to get waited on.. standing in line with the others from the bus who had made purchases.. (only 1 person ringing up purchases and wrapping up the pottery).. so, sometimes.. I only went into a couple of stores.. because of spending so much time waiting in line.. (we were only given a certain amount of time per bus stop- but, it was plenty of time to shop.. trust me!)






I can appreciate the newer painting styles and colors.. but, I will admit that I am drawn to the traditional blue patterns. I had already purchased some polish pottery casserole dishes and other pieces when I lived in northern Italy about 12 years ago. So, I also only purchased the blue and white patterns so that they would 'mix and match' nicely with other pieces that I already owned.

Some of the newer styles...






I'll be posting photos of what I did buy soon...

This weekend, I went to POLAND and bought..

Polish Pottery.. of course!


I went on a trip arranged through the base. The cost was $59.00 for a long, long, long bus ride. We departed at 12:30am.. on what was officially 'Saturday' early morning. I don't sleep on public transportation. I wish I could- but, I just can't.
Yet, in my eternal optimism- I did bring a pillow 'just in case' this was the first time in my life that I went to sleep on public transportation.

Of course, I didn't and there I was BORED.. BORED. Everyone on the bus was asleep.. no snoring.. all females on the bus except for the bus drivers. Not to say that females don't snore- but, you know what I mean.. women don't USUALLY SNORE or snore loudly.


I didn't want to turn the light on for my seat and read, knit, or make shadow puppets. No, I kept trying to go to sleep... and it was useless.


We had a 30 minute rest stop, about 3:30am. Nothing was open and many of us bought ice-cream bars.. the only option at 3:30am. We had to pay to use the toilets.. at the autobahn rest stop.. about 50 euro or about 80 cents (USA).

Now, the toliet had quite an interesting feature.. automatic cleaning of the seat.. here it is in action.. see the tiny stream of water?

Well, I was about to open the door and before I walked out of the stall- I was amazed when the toliet seat rotated around in a circle.. see how the oval is wider now?

Yes, I was in the public pay toilet taking photos... what else was I to do? Of course, if you've read my blog for very long.. you know that this isn't the first toilet photo either. :D


We arrived about 6:30am to this tiny town on the highway. I'm sure that there was more 'town' somewhere.. but, all we saw were 4 buildings.

Click on the photo and you can read the name of the town that we stopped in. There were 2 polish pottery places across the street from each other.



*Darn it... The photo downloading isn't co-operating with me. I'll publish more photos tomorrow.