I Like Trains

I like trains. I do! There is something about them that is just comforting to me. And yes, I have lived near train tracks, as my first apartment was a block away from several tracks, and I liked it! The best part is the sound of a train passing at night. When it is real quiet here in suburbia, and I am sleeping with the windows open, even now I love to hear the sound of a train in the distance.

There are several rail road crossings near me, and I am one of the weird people (do we see a pattern here?) that does not mind stopping at the crossing when the lights flash and the gates start to go down.

Why, just yesterday I was presented with this photo op (I blew it, but it was presented to me nonetheless...) when the lights flashed, the gates came down, and I was stopped. That blue thing is a rail car. Really!

Did you notice that grey van has his back-up lights on?

That is because this guy could not be bothered to wait for the train, so he had to turn around and leave. What would that 3 minutes of his life have cost him? Where did he need to be in such a hurry?

Ah, a CSX car. Some idiot painted graffiti on it, but still, a handsome CSX car.

I used to dislike stopping for trains, but maybe it was when I had kids and we'd sit and watch the trains go by that my attitude changed. I really like looooong trains, so you can make a game out of counting the cars. ;-)

Several market customers over the years have asked if I have a train stamp to make birthday cards or invitations for little boys, and I did not. SU had one, but it was more of a circus train with animals, and stamping it without the animals looked like work, and if you have read this blog for more than 2 days, you know my attitude towards work.

But with the new Occasions catalog, SU came out with a really cute train stamp set (I cannot bring myself to type 'train set' ...), so I had to get it. I was largely influenced by several really cute cards made with the set, too. All it takes is a little push, and I am sold. I am weak (we know that, too.)

Last night, while I was in my "I saw a train" stupor, I took out the set to play with it. Let me just say ... well, you be the judge of what came out:

At first I thought I could handle this set, but now I am not so sure. It has solid images, meaning you can stamp them in black or in some other color, but you cannot stamp them onto a piece of patterned paper like you can with a line image and just paper piece them. So here I stamped each of the images first in Versamark and then in an ink, then covered the area with clear EP. When all the cars had been stamped and powdered, I heat-embossed them. Eh, not my best work.

This was my second attempt, by the way. My first try was to stamp each image in Versamark onto patterned paper, emboss them, cut them out, and paper piece them onto some images stamped in black. This meant I did not have to cut out the wheels, and all the wheels were black. But it looked awful. I guess this one is not sooooo bad.

By the way, I learned several things while making this card. BR#2 - you will be so proud of me, as this is not an A2 card! Nope, it is much larger. I decided to step outside the comfort zone and make a larger card, mostly because the whole train would not fit on an A2 card. A friend of mine had given me a bunch of envelopes, so I grabbed some 5x7 envelopes from the stack and made this card to fit. Aaaah, it feels good to stretch sometimes. :-)

And the clouds are the same label die cut I used the other day, only this time I learned something.

When your B plate looks like this ...

... your die cut can come out looking like this. Not too pretty, is it? Yeah, I should buy stock in Provocraft for all the B plates I destroy. Hey, it was well-loved, and it is time to move on.

Speaking of which, today's blog layout changes included making my very verbose labels list into a drop list (saves a ton of real estate), and ... removing my hit counter. Yep, I decided that number does not float my boat much any more, so why bother? See? I am not too old to grow. ;-)

And the Play Day at #2's place has been rescheduled for Tuesday, April 21st, the day before my 2-year blog-i-versary. Let's hope the stars align and The Heap (which will be in its box post-Clean Sweep) will finally go on a much-deserved field trip. Plus, with Spring coming out all over in Maryland, there should be plenty of extra photo ops in addition to the standard stuff #2 has all over the place. And we'll stamp! Or maybe clean the stamp room. But whatever we do will involve stamps in some way. Yay!

I'm off to do some more laundry, and stamp something! Thanks for stopping by!

How To Move Your Widgets (an HTML hack)

I am so late to this Blogger gig that I find it amazing I could figure out something and then have veteran bloggers ask me how I did it. But being a former member of Future Teachers of America (I kid you not, but it was back in 7th Grade, I think), I must share something if I took the time to figure it out. (Also, by writing it down and sharing, I not only help someone else, I remember what I did for myself, since I'd forget otherwise.)

So today I wrote a beautifully-formatted Word document, with instructions and links and pictures and lots of arrows (no 24 8 x 10 color glossy photos, though ... name that song!) ... and I just learned Blogger will not allow the upload of a Word document. They say it is for security reasons, so, oh well, okay, but geez, it is so pretty! So here is my attempt to post the How To by cutting and pasting whatever Blogger will let me cut and paste. If you have problems reading the blurry images with teeny tiny print that I have included here, let me know and I'll email you my Word document.

Let us commence.

First: follow the instructions in this most-excellent tutorial to get your blog into the coveted three columns: http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2007/07/create-three-column-blogger-template.html. (Thanks to June for the link!)

Once you finish with the instructions in the above link, you will have a three-column format with all your widgets still in their original right-hand column. I tried to drag-and-drop from the right column to the new left column, but Blogger was having none of that. So I resorted to hacking the HTML. Hey, it's what I do.

Make sure you do a back-up of your template before you start any hack, so you can go back. Check the default file name, too, cuz Blogger defaulted mine to the same as the original, so I saved the new one as that name with an added “-3col” to keep them different.

1. Back-up your current template. DO THIS:













2. Making the left-sidebar-wrapper ‘container’.

This is a crucial step! This is (I am convinced) the reason my initial drag-and-drop attempt failed.

In your HTML, look for this:




(That teeny print says left-sidebar-wrapper.)

This is the stuff that you just added for your left column in the above instruction link. My left-sidebar-wrapper got the default '/' at the end of the b:section tag, and we’ll need to change this to accommodate content.

Take out that trailing ‘/’ after the ‘yes’ and add the following b:section close tag:






Okay, now you have a container to hold your widgets. Let's start moving them!

3a. Moving your widgets via drag-and-drop.

You remember how up above I said Blogger would not let me drag-and-drop my widgets from one sidebar to the other? Well that's because of that pesky '/' that we just removed. Once that is done, you now have a container, and you can drag-and-drop your widgets (in the Layout view) from the right sidebar to the left. This is MUCH SAFER than an HTML hack, but if you loooove HTML, or maybe you just want a little adventure in your life, then read the next section. If you choose to drag-and-drop (the better choice, I think), make sure to go to the last section about previewing and backing up your template with your changes.

3b. Moving your widgets via an HTML hack.

Look for the div id="sidebar-wrapper" section (mine looks like this post-widget-move, but all your widgets should be here initially):


Each of those b:widget lines represents one of your widgets.



Carefully highlight one or more of your sidebar-wrapper widgets, then cut from the current sidebar-wrapper and paste it between the b:section tags in your left-sidebar-wrapper:






You have now successfully moved the widgets!

4. Checking your work, and the back-up.

Go ahead and preview your blog to see how it looks, or look at the layout tab and you should see your widgets on the left. I am not kidding, it is really this easy.


Check out that new left-hand column! Schnazzy, huh?


When you are done re-arranging your widgets, make sure to save your template as a different name…back-up is a good thing.

When I had my background skin issue, having these backups let me just import the old template and go back to the way it was. Then, when I found the three-column skin, I simply imported my three-column template, and I was done. (Of course, I am also wishy-washy, so the ability to go back and forth like this helps me a lot.)

That's it - you are done!

So you see - there is no need to be afraid of a three-column Blogger template because you don't want to re-do all your widgets, because you get to keep them! Now go forth and move some widgets!!!

There's Gonna Be Some Changes 'Round These Parts

I think I've been reading The Pioneer Woman way too much lately - just look at that title! Ack!

So ANYway, this blog will be like a chameleon for the next week or so, or until I get tired of playing. Why? WHY, you ask?! Well, it is because we are approaching my 2-year Blog-i-versary, and I aim to make some changes (there I go again), largely, well, because I am bored with Da Blog's look and feel. Plus, the right-side stuff runs all the way to China, and all that left-side was nekkid, so I thought spreading things out was worth a try.

The plan in my pea-brain was to have three columns, with the business stuff (disclaimers, subscribe links, don't steal my stuff pleas, etc.) on the left, the fun stuff on the right, and the whining and some stamping will continue right down the middle. That's the plan, anyway.

Just now I reconfigured my template into three columns; then I lost my cool background skin, so I had to go find it again, and that took some time since I got it pre-laptop-meltdown; then the skin did not fit with three columns; then I bagged the three-column layout cuz it looked too busy; so I brought back the two-column layout and found the background skin and put it back; but then I found some three-column skins, so I put back the three-column version, with the skin. And you're lookin' at it.

I am not in love with it, so I will continue to play around until I get something I like better. I just wanted to warn you that things are a-changin', and some of it may not be too pretty. I apologize in advance for any eye strain that may result.

Ready For A 10-Minute Card?

I did not want this set. I did not want this set for a long, long time. I really did not want this set. Then I got this set, and now I love it. (What can I say? I am weak.)

This 100% Scrap Heap creation was inspired by this card on SCS, and it literally took me 10 minutes to put it together.

I love the color combo of Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze ... they just look so soft together! Soft, but blah, so I added Tangerine Tango to liven it up a bit. I was going to do the glitter thing like on the referenced SCS post, but decided The Ladies might enjoy a really quick and easy card for a change.

The base here is actually Old Olive instead of Kiwi Kiss, but for my stamp camps, we'll use the Kiwi Kiss.

Do you think it is a conspiracy that SU continues to make all their new punches coordinate with their existing punches? Well, I can tell you *I* am a willing guinea pig, and I buy almost all of them! I was hoping that new scallop oval was the size of the Wide Oval punch, but it actually layers under the Large Oval punch (and probably the small one, too). But since both of them fit so nicely inside the Wide Oval, I am totally okay with that!

Recipe (All Stampin' Up!): Stamps - Fifth Avenue Floral, Short & Sweet; Paper - Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Whisper White; Ink - Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango; Other - Wide Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Baja Breeze ribbon.

I am off now to make a few more of these, then I'll dig out something else from The Heap. Thanks for stopping by!

Cards From The Sick Bed

In between my bouts of whining and self-pity Sunday and Monday, I got off the couch long enough to lay waste to these pesky papers. Oh, they are pretty enough, but I am sick, sick, SICK of looking at them. SICK.

I have several strips cut out and layered, but they all translate into cards with white space that would need to be addressed, so I first tackled the larger pieces I'd cut, and this is what came out:

Aaaaaaaah, can't you just feel the hot, soapy, luxurious bath? Hmmm? Oh, yeah. And I could go draw one right now, but I'd need to clean the tub first, and that sounds like work. (The tub image is from Hambo Stamps, I think. The sentiment is from a retired SU words set.)

This card uses a lot of the papers. This is a time when a lotta layers is a good thing. Let's see - the blue layer, the pattern layer, the red scallop, the two blue strips, and the red layer under the sentiment. The white card base and the other white pieces are all from The Heap. Woo-hoo! I used a few more inches of that yummy ribbon, and I also colored the image with Copics. I decided to leave the tub and the bubbles white, as they should be, and just added some Cool Grey (C-1) around the edges and for some highlights. I went back when it was all done and added the bling. Not so sure that was a good idea....

This is just a variation on a theme. Blue layer, pattern layer, blue strip (this time with some rub-ons for some color), and red pieces for the layers behind both the image and the sentiment. All the white, including the base, were also from The Heap. This time, though, I used some Stickles for a little shimmer on the bubbles and the floor in front of the tub. I think it was the better choice, too. (Is it just me, or is her bath tub going down-hill?)

Before I crashed for the night last night I eeked out this one. I really do not like that the Cuttlebug folders do not do the whole A2 card front. Hmph. I hacked off the non-embossed parts and layered it onto a piece of the red, then onto the white base. I used up one of the layered strips I have, added the obligatory ribbon, and used another piece of the red behind the BD sentiment. Ya know, for under $10, I am getting a lot of mileage out of that stamp!

So I went to work today, even though I did not want to go. Every fiber of my being said, "Go back to bed ....". But since I never listen to me, I went to work. The good news is it is Spring Break for the public schools here, so there was no traffic! Yippee! I actually got into 5th gear at one point! Wowza! Sweet commute in. The ride home, though ... not so much. In these parts, you take what you can get.

And if you have ever had to deal with computer people, you know we have our own lingo. One of the skills that I have honed over the years is being able to work with diverse groups of people, acting as translator - business needs to computer-speak. Along the way, one of the other things I've learned is the ability recognize when the glaze begins to form over the eyeballs of the other person, and to know when to pull back and try again, or give it a rest. Well, today, when one of my co-workers tried to engage me in conversation, it was painfully apparent nothing was getting through. *I* had become the person with glaze forming on the eyeballs. I just could not engage the grey matter. I tell you, I should NOT have gone in today. But actually, I am glad I did, as I ended up getting a lot done, largely because no one would talk to me because of the glaze. They knew...oh, they knew.

Hopefully, I'll get some more rest tonight and be more cognizant and conversant tomorrow. For now, the laundry calls to me.

Thanks for stopping by!

UHC #9

Today's Under-Appreciated Holiday is Look Up At The Sky Day, which will be celebrated on April 14th. Think about it: When was the last time you looked up at the sky?

This card is actually SU-Only, so in theory I could use it for a workshop. In theory.

I'd originally planned to use a stamp I have (or rather had) of a dog lying on his back in the grass, looking up at the sky. But nooooo, it is nowhere to be found, so it is either lost or I sold it last year. As I spent today recumbent on the couch, feeling sorry for myself, I thought of an alternative, and as I dragged my sorry butt off the couch mid-afternoon (I do not sit still very well), I decided to make this:

(And it is all scrap! Yay, me!) Ahem.

I mostly use the sky in cards as a backdrop, so this time I decided to make it the focus of the card instead. Ingenious, yes, I know.

This all started over the weekend, when I was still mostly vertical, and I thought to open the set of SU Sizzlets Dies called Lots of Tags that I bought because I thought (in a Good Demo Moment) that I should. Uh-huh. When I punched out this one, I thought it looked like a cloud, and the little, tiny light bulb went off over my head, so I cut two more to get to the magic number of three.

To make it a bit more interesting, I put one of them at the top of the blue piece so it needed to be trimmed, and I managed to smudge the one on the right, which is why a flock of birds now lives there. The tree tops are made with the Branch Out set, stamped in Basic Black and Garden Green.

All in all, this was a pretty quick card to make. When would I give it to anyone? Who knows!? What's your point?! Now go back to whatever you were doing, and remember to look up at the sky on April 14th. That would be the day before the lines form at a Post Office near you.

Saturday's Creations

Not only was this weekend's Field Trip cancelled, I lost my mojo and got sick. Being sick sucks. I thought it started with some Faux Fried Rice I made last night. I felt ucky all night, and this morning I had zero energy. I checked the box, and yup - it contains MSG. MSG and I do not get along, at all. Then I got cold, and I am never cold, not unless I am sick. So even though the sun was out and it was supposed to be a b-e-a-utiful day, I put on socks and then a sweatshirt. Then I pulled a blanket over myself and stayed horizontal all day today. Then I got itchy skin, which I know = 'fever'. So I took some medicine and covered up again. Now I am sweating, so I should be better tomorrow, but I dunno. And of course, I just changed the sheets today. Great.

So I made two cards in 10 hours today, only one of which is blog-worthy. You know it's bad when I don't even feel like stamping. What a pity party I am having right now.

But yesterday I managed to do some stampin', even though it was mostly not from The Heap. This is a really cute set from Inkadinkado. I do not usually get sets this 'cutsy', but I wanted it for some reason. Who knows why.

I still had the Porcelain Prints papers out (not a big surprise), so I got out some River Rock and one of the retired In Color blues, either Blue Bayou or Buckaroo Blue. Being me, this is probably a combination of the two.

There are many images in the set, and the sentiment and image are part of the same clear stamp, which makes it tough to stamp the sentiment separately, so I didn't!

I colored this guy with my fuzzy Certainly Celery marker. I've bought a new marker, but I was too lazy to go find it.

I really like this guy - isn't he sweet? I colored him with Copics.


And this is my nod to the cupcake rage into which I have not bought. (Boy, that sounds almost as bad as, "Up with which I will not put", doesn't it?) I am not sure what kind of a critter this is, but he's pretty cute, too.


Okay, that's all I have in me for tonight. Tomorrow I am supposed to post my UHC, but the stamp I had in mind to use for the holiday I had selected has gone missing. That seems to happen a lot around here. I even went through my "I do not want these any more someone please buy them" box of stamps and it is not in there, either. Oh, well. I may still use that holiday, but come up with something else for my card. If I stay home sick tomorrow, I just might get to it.

Thanks for stopping by!

More Stash Stuff

In lieu of my Play Day with #2, I tackled the Scrap Heap again. I have 4 short weeks before my first Farmers Market, and I am seriously low on Mother's Day and Sympathy cards, so I decided to make a few of each today.

This is a combination of something old and something new. The 'old' is the Sahara Sand scraps and the retired DS paper. The 'new' is my 5th Ave Floral SU stamp set. I stamped the floral image in Sahara Sand with Sahara Sand ink so it looks less plain. The pink flowers are punched out with the Three For You punch, stuck on with glue dots, and topped off with a dot of White Opal Liquid Pearls. I've never used the White Opal Pearls before, even though I have had them for a long time, so that was something 'new', too!

Since the 5th Ave Floral set was out (you know how that goes ...) I used some of my River Rock and black scraps, plus a piece of retired Porcelain Prints DS paper to make this one. I colored the flower with Old Olive around the edge, then used a blender pen with River Rock ink to highlight just the edges. The stamens are colored with Barely Banana. One flower image is stamped on the white layer, plus I stamped another one on a White scrap (where all that coloring happened), cut it out, and stuck it on the plain image to give it a little depth.

Then I moved on to my best-selling Mother's Day card. In fact, I keep this out all Summer and it sells all Summer. I usually just put in two eyelets and tie the ribbon through them, but I tried a few different things today, and I decided the eyelet thing was better, so most of them got that treatment. I print the sentiment on vellum with my ink jet printer, and it stays wet so I can emboss it with clear EP.

This is what's stamped underneath the vellum. It's called Mom Sayings and it's by River City Rubber Works. I have the Dad Sayings, too, that I use for Father's Day.

This is my old, reliable Sympathy card. I sell a lot of them, mostly because it is not flowery or mushy. This one is last year's model.

Do not be too impressed with the straightness of the sentiment, cuz it's all one stamp. The four different colored images are separate, though. I have had these for a few years, and they are by Endless Creations.

All the card stock and ink for these cards are the retired SU colors of Cranberry Crisp, Vintage Violet, True Thyme, Buckaroo Blue and Marigold Morning. And yes, I hoarded them.

Today I decided to try something a little different with these stamps; you know - less boring. So I opened one of my new sets of Nesties. I got these Mega Curved Rectangles from 7KidsCollegeFund, because quite honestly, they have the best price. I also got the Standard Hearts, you know, to justify the shipping.

I found that stamping the the images, then cutting them out with the Nestie was way easier than trying to get them straight on a plain rectangle piece of card stock. Straight is such a challenge for me ....

This card is the same as the above, except I used a few inches of my hoarded Vintage Violet ribbon to try and break up all that Vanilla background.

For this one, I went a little wild and cut the Marigold Morning card stock with the next size Nestie in the set. It's kinda different. What do you think?

Well, not bad for a Saturday, huh? I think I kinda like this Scrap Heap gig. No, really, I think I'll keep going until at least this month's Clean Sweep.

Now, I'm off to bag and tag these babies and then work on some other Sympathy cards. That section runs pretty thin most days.

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring Colors

One of the best things about living near our Nation's Capital is the abundance of flowers and flowering trees. The National Park Service does a fantabulous job of keeping the District bea-u-tiful. We are in the middle of Cherry Blossom season, so things are particularly lovely right now. As the other 'regular' trees begin to grow their buds, and we can see a lot of new green growing everywhere, the cherry trees definitely steal the show.

So imagine the surprise of my co-worker when I actually brought my camera to take a picture of this on our way to lunch today:

No kidding. He actually said he could not believe I was taking a shot of a cable wheel during cherry blossom season. Hey, I thought it was a photo op. It is certainly not something you see every day, though we have had to look at it all week...

Okay, okay. Here is a tree I pass every day as I leave the office and drive down this street. Soooo, I took its picture. Pretty!

Depending on my route home, I get to pass this. Our fair city does a FAB job of beautifying our roadways. This is an entire berm blanketed with flowering daffodils. GORgeous. I mean, there you are, driving down a highway, surrounded by idiot drivers and cement, and then you see this field of yellow. Sigh .... (No, I did not get out of my car. Yes, I just pulled off onto the shoulder, lowered the driver-side window and shot it from there. Hey, cars were whizzing by me on my left, and I love life too much to die over a photo. Even for you guys.)

As I left the office today, I turned into this old-money neighborhood to take pics of the cherry trees. The trees line every street and make canopies of pink. There were people out everywhere enjoying the beauty. And the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out, so this pic should not be as bad as some of the other ones, but I think it is, anyway. Disclaimer: I are not a phot-grapher, I make cards, okay? Okay! By the way, these are fickle blossoms. A good rain or a big wind and poof - they are gone. It has been raining the past few days (but nothing too severe), but it is crazy windy tonight. It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend, here, and I even have maybe-plans (maybe, like if I feel like it when I wake up) to go for a walk on the canal tomorrow morning to check things out. Let's hope the blossoms hold on through the weekend.

Aaaaaaaaand, I stamped sumpin'. It took me all week to make these two cards, so I hope you appreciate them as they come by ...

I took out my un-inked Western set from The Cat's Pajamas that I have had for a looong time, grabbed some more scraps, and over about 3 days, I made two cards. TWO! Well, Wednesday night I was cooking, and Thursday I was near comotose from eating too much food at our Passover Pot Luck, which, by the way, went VERY well.

So I made one boy card and one girl card. That's it!

Tomorrow - ah, tomorrow - the scheduled Play Day with #2 and the Field Trip for the remains of The Scrap Heap. Well, it's OFF. #2 regretfully had to cancel because she has a life, even though it is getting in the way of her play time. We'll just re-scheduled for when she can attend. I mean, it is at her house, after all. So ya know what? I will run the few errands I had already planned to run in the morning, and then ... oh, and THEN .. I shall continue my quest to chip away at The Heap! Maybe not with the same level of energy as I have been exerting, but I will keep using as many scraps as I possibly can. I will!

Wanna know a little secret? I have been really, really good with this whole Scrap Heap thing, but on the side I have been placing online orders for new stuff. Yeah, I've been real bad. REAL bad. I plan to break into my goodies this weekend, so I'll show off as I go. Dontcha just love new stuff? :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Cooking, Now!

Literally, yes, I am cooking. Considering I no longer buy food OR cook, this is slightly strange. I have spent more time at the grocery store this week than I have in the past three months. Why, you might ask? And so you might!

One of my co-workers decided we need to have a Passover Pot Luck. We have a lot of Jewish people on our Team, and the rest of the group loves to cook. And being in the computer field, we ALL love to eat. Man, we can sniff out a cake at 50 feet! Oh, and the second part of the logic is to practice our recipes on each other instead of our families. How thoughtful, don't you agree? Kill your co-workers, not your relatives. Some people may argue this was thought out backwards, but I won't go there. Oh, wait, I just did. Sorry.

Actually, we just look for excuses to bring in food, and Passover seemed as good as any. And we are being observant, too. We sent out a list of rules, including what foods to avoid (basically grains and anything with leavening). Kinda like a reverse Iron Chef: Go forth and cook but use NONE of the following ... Pretty funny, really. Most of us have spent a little time this week plotting and planning. One of the guys in my aisle was still making it up this evening as I was leaving, "Maybe I'll try ....". Lordy, who knows what we'll get!

I had planned all along to make a sweet dessert-y kugel (like a noodle casserole, but without the noodles), but one of my co-workers announced she was going to bring in a brisket, so she wanted me to make a savory dish, not a sweet one. Bah.

So last night I bought too much stuff since I had no idea what I'd actually be making and I bought stuff for about four different recipes, you know, just in case someone created a 30-hour day and I'd have the time to COOK it all. Not. I also picked up a brisket since all that talk about brisket made me want one LAST night. So I cooked it and made a list of everything I still did not have so I could go to the store again tonight, which I did.

Today my brisket-making co-worker announced her recipe calls for a beer for the liquid. NOT! No beer for Passover! (No soup for you!) So off she ran to look up Passover Beer and she plans to buy some and make it right. Good! We have RULES, people!

Another co-worker had already made 2 casseroles (kugels) for the event (she planned ahead; imagine that) and was contemplating a third, when she realized she was taking the Metro (train) to work and could not figure out how to lug three casseroles with her, so I offered to pick her up so she could cook us more food. Hey, I have my priorities, people! Now all I need to do is remember to pick her up in the morning instead of going on auto-pilot.

And the MOST interesting part of this whole thing? Half of the people in my group are from India. Hmmm ... I wonder what they think of all this.

I have no cards to show you - I'm too busy cooking and washing the fall-out. I ended up making an Onion-Mushroom-Matzoh kugel and also a sweet kugel with farfel, cottage cheese, sour cream, apricot preserves and dried cranberries (cannot find my raisins). It is cheesy and gooooood. Think cheese cake. M-m-m.

Field Trip update: I plan to pack up the remaining Scrap Heap tomorrow or Friday in preparation for the big day on Saturday. #2 is giddy with excitement that she's getting a day to play with her stamps and maybe some other artsy stuff. I still have no idea what we'll be doing, but I hope it involves a reduction of The Heap! And she remembered her blog password and is ready to rebut any statement I may make on my blog. Oh, this could be fun!

Well, I think my casseroles have cooled off enough for me to cover and refrigerate them. Tomorrow - we eat!!! I'll take my camera in case there are any photo ops.